Informed sources estimated that the campaigns during the past hours seized more than 2,000 tons of stored onions, in only 3 governorates, as onions are an agricultural crop that can be stored for 6 months.
The sources added that there are tens of thousands of tons still in the possession of major traders, and their owners will be forced to put them on the markets with the application of the Monopoly Practices and Violations Law on them.
El Sayed Al-Quseir, Minister of Agriculture assigned the ministry’s leaders and directors of the agricultural directorates to carry out intensive inspection campaigns on all onion farms in the country, while counting the numbers of farms and the quantities of roasted onions that merchants have stored and withheld from the markets.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Agriculture issued today confirmed that yesterday, committees of the ministry’s leaders visited onion beds in their cultivation and storage areas in Giza, Dakahlia, and Gharbia governorates.
The Minister of Agriculture contacted the Consumer Protection Agency to participate with the ministry’s leaders in today’s inspection campaigns on onion farms in Giza Governorate, which resulted in large quantities being stored by traders, and legal measures were taken against them regarding the storage and monopoly of strategic goods and withholding them from the markets with the aim of exaggerating their prices.
The sources said that Egypt has 240,000 feddans of onions, from which it produces more than 3.5 million tons, the largest share of which is for the local market.
The sources added that onions are planted from September to early December each year and harvested from December to May each year.
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