Egypt: Italy-WFP agreement for food supply
The agreement, which has the financial backing of Italy's development cooperation body, will see the WFP purchase 1,100 tonnes of refined white sugar on the international market and 1,000 tonnes of vegetable oil, which will be delivered to the Ministry of Resources and Internal Trade, which will in turn distribute the goods to around 600,000 people in Beni Suef, one of the Egyptian governorates with the lowest levels of food safety. "This scheme demonstrates not only the lengthy partnership between the Italian government and the WFP, but is also the expression of the special and deep relations that exist between Italy and Egypt," said ambassador Pacifico. Italy remains at Egypt's side during the transition, supporting its efforts towards sustainable socio-economic development and at the same time responding to its most urgent needs".
Bordignon observed that WFP's assisted food programme in Egyptian schools is financed mainly through an innovative debt swap mechanism put in place by the Egyptian and Italian governments, the first phase of which was completed in 2006. The second phase, which takes place in the governorates of Beni Suef, Minya and Fayoum, will take the total value of debt swap financing up to 15 million dollars, Bordignon explained, and is geared towards giving access to education to around 185,000 of the area's poorest children and supporting 98,500 families through food safety support.
Egypt is the world's leading importer of wheat, bringing in from abroad more than 50% of its domestic requirements, much of which is used in producing typical Egyptian bread, which benefits from government subsidies.
Thursday, 10 May 2012
(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, MAY 10 - The Italian ambassador to Egypt, Claudio Pacifico, and the UN World Food Programme (WFP)'s representative in the country, Gianpietro Bordignon, are signing a deal in Cairo today for two and a half billion euros worth of food supplies, in support of Egypt's food safety system.
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