An Egyptian farmer holds a handful of freshly harvested wheat grains during the launch of the Government’s local wheat harvest at a field in Beni Suef, south of Cairo, Egypt April 24, 2017.

:: Egypt aims to raise its silo storage capacity for wheat to 3.13 million tons in 2017/18 from 1.528 in 2015/16, a statement from the planning ministry said on Tuesday.

Egypt is the world’s top importer of wheat. The country has tried to limit its use of private sector silos and increase its own capacity to curb smuggling in local procurement of wheat.

According to a recent statement Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail held a meeting with the ministers of supply and agriculture to discuss all the rules regulating the trade of local wheat for the 2017 season, posted dailynewsegypt.com

On another note, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) in Egypt said that wheat productivity could drop from 2.69 tons per acre to 2.2 tons per acre if the average temperature increases by one degree Celsius.