EGYPT – Egypt’s soybean production in marketing year (MY) 2022/23 is projected to total 34,000 metric tons, up by 9,000 metric tons from the previous year’s output.

The rise in production volume is attributed to the increase in total area harvested by 3,000 hectares, linked to contract farming agreement between Egypt’s Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR) and growers, as well as increased distribution of certified of soybean seeds.

The rise in production is set to trigger jump in consumption to roughly 4.05 million metric tons (MMT), up 6.6 percent from MY 2021/22 estimate of 3.79 million metric ton, reports USDA in a GAIN report.

Egypt’s domestic consumption of soybeans for food use is expected to remain at roughly 17,000 metric tons, while domestic crush capacity will reach about 12,121 MT/day, up from 11,363 MT/day in marketing year 2021/22.

The increase in domestic crush capacity is attributable to the establishment of new crushing facilities.

Soybean crush operations in the country are dominated by two companies with over 80 percent of the total volume i.e., SOYVEN and the Alex Seeds Company.

With the exception of these two companies, the majority of crush facilities usually operate at about 50 percent of their actual capacity.

Following higher levels of crushing capacity, soybean oil production is projected to increase by 6.5% to 728,000 MT from 683,000 metric tons.

According to the report, soybean oil consumption is expected to reach about 1.07 MMT in MY 2022/23, up 60,000 MT from the previous year’s 1.01 million metric tons.

Post attributes the increase in soy oil consumption to greater amounts of higher-quality cooking oils being blended with soybean and sunflower oils and then channelled through the country’s subsidy program.

Meanwhile, soybean meal, produced as a by-product from the oil extraction is expected to be 3.16 million metric tons, 6.7% compared to 2021/22 estimate of 2.96 MMT.

Egypt’s soybean meal consumption in MY 2022/23 is set at 3.5 MMT, up by 1.4 percent from MY 2021/22 estimate of 3.45 MMT.

Additional feed lines are coming online, adding to already existing aquaculture and poultry feed milling capacities to meet the increased demand.

With soybean demand being higher than production, Egypt will turn to imports, purchasing about 4.0 MMT of the oil seed, up 400,000 MT from previous year’s 3.6 million metric tons.

Between MY 2016/17 and MY 2020/21, the North African country has imported some 17.31 MMT of soybeans.

Throughout that period, Egypt’s main suppliers have been the United States (12.5 MMT), Argentina (2.05 MMT), Ukraine (1.67 MMT), Uruguay (437,000 MT), Brazil (360,000 MT), and Paraguay (195,000 metric tons).

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