Egypt asks World Bank for $500 million to buy wheat

A correspondent in Egypt

Jun 7, 2022

A man carries a bale of wheat during the harvest in the village of Bamha near al-Ayyat in Egypt. — A man carries a bale of wheat during the harvest in the village of Bamha near al-Ayyat in Egypt's Giza province some 60 kilometers south of the capital on May 17, 2022. Due to wheat shortages resulting from the war in Ukraine, Egypt is harvesting locally grown wheat to ensure self-sufficiency. — KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images

CAIRO — The Egyptian government asked the World Bank in late May to obtain $500 million to finance the Emergency Food Security and Resilience Support Program, which is aimed at managing Egypt’s needs for imported wheat in light of the ongoing repercussions of the Russian war in Ukraine on global markets.

According to a document issued by the World Bank in May regarding the program, “The immediate food security impacts of the Ukraine war are particularly pronounced on countries heavily dependent on Ukrainian and Russian grain imports. As the largest importer of wheat in the world, the Ukraine war has delivered a major shock to Egypt.”