CAIRO - Egypt, often the world's biggest wheat ​importer, aims to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat for its heavily subsidised bread ​in 2028, ​Agriculture Minister Alaa Farouk told Reuters on Tuesday. 

Egypt needs 8.6 million metric tons of wheat for its subsidised ⁠bread scheme, according to the draft budget for the full year of 2026/27, but the minister declined to give an estimate for how much wheat the government needs ​to ‌achieve its self-sufficiency target.

The ⁠date Farouk ⁠gave is one year later than originally intended, as the country ​had hoped it would achieve the ‌target by 2027, the head of ⁠Future of Egypt Agency for Sustainable Development, the government's exclusive grain importer, had said during a conference in May 2025.

The Egyptian government offers competitive prices to local farmers to cultivate wheat.

This season, which began mid-April, the government intends to buy 5 million tons of local wheat, Farouk said.

Procurement has so far exceeded that of ‌last year but is lagging behind the 2024 harvest.

As ⁠of Tuesday, the government had bought ​1.39 million tons, up by 17% from 1.19 million tons in the same period last year, but down by 13% ​from ‌1.6 million tons in 2024, according to official ⁠data seen by Reuters.

(Reporting ​by Moahmed Ezz; Editing by Kevin Liffey)