Feature: Egypt's rice export ban worries farmers

"I expect the rice price will get lower this season, and it will be better for me to buy rice than to plant it," said Mahmoud Abdel Fattah, a 55-year-old farmer.

The rice harvest season came in September in the Nile Delta area of Egypt. Farmers will be busy on harvesting, packaging and selling through the whole month, with the hopes to earn more to feed their families.

According to the official data from the Egyptian government, the rice price has surged by about 50 percent this year. In supermarkets of Cairo, the price of one kilo rice has increased from 3.5 Egyptian pounds (0.4 U.S. dollar) last year to unprecedented 11 pounds three months ago.

The hiking price encouraged more farmers to plant rice this year. However, this season is not a source of joy anymore since a ban of rice exports, issued by the government last month, aiming to control the price and preserve stocks for the local market.

"For this season, I have spent 2,000 Egyptian pounds on 12 acres since this May, but now I can't expect a reasonable income," Fattah said while spreading the rice on ground to get drier, helped by his daughter and his two grandchildren.

He said that after calculating the expenses of seeding, cultivating, farming, using machines, hiring workforce and harvesting, as well as the revenues, he has regretted planting rice this year.

With the sound of reapers from behind, Fattah's family were collecting the crops by hand in piles. "I can't even afford 160 pounds per day to hire more hands," he added.

Since the year of 2011 when the former president Hosni Mubarak was overthrew, Egypt has been trapped in economic stagnation and security problems.

In 2016, food problem has become more serious because of the hiking prices. The failure to stockpile rice earlier this year has left it at the mercy of traders, who are usually not interested in domestic market, or prone to stockpile for a higher price.

"I don't care about exportation, I just want the rice to be available like last year with cheaper prices," said Amal Moustafa, a housewife in her thirties, while buying some vegetables from the market.

"The rice is a base for everyday dishes, and with high prices, I reduce the amounts of vegetables and meat to buy more rice," she said, noting the ban of rice exports is really important for poor people living in cities.

However, farmers stand on the other side, regarding to the ban and lower price of rice.

"Actually, we produce more than enough rice for the domestic needs, especially this year. I was told that the price of a kilo of rice might be lower than 3 pounds after the harvest season," a farmer named Abdel Shafy Qasem told Xinhua.

He added that earlier this year, many farmers have planted rice and nobody expected that the government will totally ban the rice exports.

"It was a bad decision to plant the rice this season. I have some other fields planted with garlic, carrot and corn, now they are my hope for the whole year," Qasem said.

He said that for most farmers, this water-consuming grain has brought them more economic burden on irrigation, because they have to spent much to find water.

"My land is located in a higher level, and I have to dig nearly 150 meters for ground water, which cost me and my neighbors 15,000 pounds," Qasem explained in details.

According to Ragab Shihata, head of the Rice Department in the Industries Union of Egypt, halting the rice exportation will lower the price in a short time, but in a long run, the ban will increase the stock percentage, and make the rice vulnerable for spoilage.

"The key problem is that nobody expected this policy earlier this year, so it will really harm the farmers' income," he said.

At the same time, the expert called for a more balanced policy on rice.

"For example, the government can open exportation for one million tons of rice to make balance between controlling the high prices in the local market and avoiding losses of farmers and businessmen," Shihata said. Endit