Grain production and food security (see Tables 8.6 and 8.7)
 Before the First World War Egypt ranked among the food-exporting
countries. Up to the early 1960s the country was self-sufficient. Since the
1970s grain consumption has increased drastically, while grain production has
increased only very slowly. The production and significance of the main grain
types are analysed below.
Wheat (see Figure 8.5)
Annual per capita consumption of wheat and maize in Egypt was 290.5 kg
in 1998. Egypt has the highest wheat consumption rate in the world. Bread is
taken with every meal and is the staple food of the poorer population today.
There are three main types of bread in Egypt, differing according to the grain
they are made of and to the areas of consumption:
1. The first is very thin and flat and consists of a mixture of wheat and
maize; it is produced by women in rural areas for domestic consumption.
In middle Egypt a certain type of this bread, called bettau, is made of
maize with the addition of helba (fenugreek) as a spice.
2. Eesh baladi (local bread) is a flat bread which is sold in towns and in bigger
villages. The state provides the bakeries with subsidized wheat flour for
its production. In 1980 consumers of this bread paid only 36.6 per cent
of the world market price for wheat (Hamdan 1984a: 267). In 2001, the
government allocated US$2.1 billion to subsidize basic commodities, mainly
bread (Internet 2001a).
3. Besides these two, another type of bread can be bought in the bigger
towns, the more expensive eesh fino, a white baguette-type bread which
is produced in special bakeries and consumed by the upper and middle
classes.