Saturday 07/March/2026 – 04:37 AM
The Board of Directors of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce in Egypt decided to reactivate the Crisis Operations Room with the formation of a committee of senior experts to propose necessary proactive measures.
According to a statement, this comes within the framework of the role of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce in maintaining the availability of goods and production requirements and the stability of markets, and submitting practical proactive recommendations to decision-makers in the country, based on the experiences of the Chambers of Commerce in dealing with the effects of the World War, then the wars of 1967 and 1973, the events of 2011 and the 2013 revolution, the Covid epidemic, and then the Russian-Ukrainian war.
This was stated by Ahmed Al-Wakil, President of the Union, who explained that the current circumstances, which we hope will not last long, call for immediate proactive action to diversify the origins of goods and production requirements to ensure their continued flow in light of the disruption of many supply chains, and the rise in shipping and insurance costs from some traditional origins.
The agent stressed that in light of war economics, which is the current situation, the basis is to ensure the abundance of all goods, and that macroeconomic indicators, despite their importance, come in second place, but everything that affects them must be dealt with in parallel.
The agent explained that the Egyptian state, since the Covid epidemic, has sought to increase storage capabilities by establishing dozens of large silos for grains, huge tanks for edible oil, petroleum materials, butane, gasification ships, etc., and with the stability of currency prices in the recent period, the size of the strategic stock was increased to exceed six months, reaching nine months and even a year for some basic commodities, with foreign currency reserves rising to $52.75 billion, which covers the cost of nine months of imports, which will help stabilize the markets in the short term. And the average.
The agent indicated that a higher committee of senior experts and former ministers had been formed and began studying the current developments of geopolitical events and their economic impacts, their direct and indirect impact on the economy, the availability of goods and production requirements, supply chains, and shipping and insurance costs, to propose proactive measures that include diversifying the origins of each commodity and production requirement, to ensure the availability of goods in the markets at the lowest cost, and that all productive sectors continue to operate at full capacity and the flow of imports of goods and production requirements, and to maintain export markets with a continuous flow. Exports and their development to replace cash reserves of foreign currencies.
The agent stressed that at this stage, absolute priority must be given to production inputs through their immediate and rapid release while temporarily reducing unnecessary procedures, and allocating an urgent customs path for industries that have a wide impact on the market, with a temporary review of protection measures affecting production inputs through an urgent assessment of the impact of anti-dumping duties and preventive measures on inputs with the aim of studying partial suspension or selective exceptions to production inputs for a specific period.
The Undersecretary indicated that a meeting was held with His Excellency the Ministers of Supply, Internal Trade, Agriculture, Land Reclamation, Investment and Foreign Trade to unify visions and complete coordination through periodic meetings and real-time reports. Meetings will also be held with the Union’s sectoral committees and divisions to follow up on the flow of goods, stabilize markets, continue the production process, and resolve any obstacles that may affect any sector, with directions to announce prices in accordance with the law and notify the Union of any monopolistic practices or withholding of goods at the level of each commodity.
Alaa Ezz, Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce and the Union of African Chambers, indicated that the Operations Chamber has carried out a complete inventory of the stocks of basic commodities, in addition to the ships heading to Egypt, their arrival dates, and the goods received on them, in addition to an inventory of the contracted goods that have not yet been shipped to follow up on the replacement of what is consumed from the strategic balance, and directives to increase the imports of any commodity that is not sufficiently replaced.
Ezz continued: There is also daily monitoring of global prices for basic commodities, shipping and insurance rates, and monitoring of disrupted supply chains. We have also communicated with counterpart unions and international chambers of commerce to identify suppliers from new origins for basic commodities and production requirements, taking into account that shipping and insurance costs are not high, to propose replacing imports in the event of disruption of shipping from traditional origins or high costs.
