05:27 PM Wednesday 27 December 2023
Books – Ahmed Wali:
The recent crisis of high sugar has forced many Egyptians, whether at the level of individuals or places whose work is related to the availability and use of this commodity, to resort to some alternative methods to deal with it and absorb it in a way that does not significantly negatively affect work or personal consumption.
Sugar is considered one of the commodities that cafes and cafés cannot operate without, and with the price of a kilo of sugar jumping in recent weeks to levels near 50 pounds, some of these places have resorted to ways to accommodate this increase without affecting the level of service or alienating their customers from it.
Speaking to Subhi, one of the owners of popular coffee shops, he said that he was surprised when purchasing the goods used in his coffee in the past weeks that the merchant he deals with did not have sugar, so he was forced to search for sugar from other merchants, and after difficulty he found a very small quantity at a price of 50 pounds per kilo.
He added that because he did not have a stock of sugar, he was forced to buy it at this price, after he used to buy a kilo at a price of 36 pounds before the crisis.
However, with the increase in prices at the height of the crisis, Sobhi was forced to increase the prices of drinks from 2 to 3 pounds, and after he was accustomed to providing sugar to the customer in the form of “brown sugar” by providing an amount of it in a small sugar container that might exceed his need for sweetener, he began asking the customer Find out the sugar level you need, and set it before serving the drink.
Muhammad, another café owner, told Masrawy that he had a small amount of sugar stock when this crisis occurred, and as it intensified, the shortage of supply in the markets, and the jump in prices, he ran to buy a large amount of it at varying prices to create a stock of sugar that would avoid the possibility of business disruption due to the shortage of sugar in the market.
He added that after a search trip among many merchants, he obtained a kilo of sugar at the time at a price of 52 pounds, after its price was 35 pounds per kilo the last time before the crisis reached its peak.
Muhammad agreed with Sobhi on the way to confront the crisis by increasing the prices of drinks by a value ranging between two and three pounds per drink, but he disagreed with him about offering “sugar outside” to the customer, so he remained at the same pace as Egyptian cafes are accustomed to this custom.
The behavior of Youssef, one of the owners of upscale cafes, did not differ from Muhammad and Sobhi in the face of the sugar crisis, who also resorted to increasing the prices of drinks, but in a way that did not alienate the cafe patrons.
Youssef told Masrawy that the sugar provided at the café is in the form of small, wrapped bags of sugar, noting that he obtained a package of sugar containing 1,600 packets of sugar (5 grams per packet) at a price of 640 pounds, which is about 70 pounds higher than the price before the crisis.
He added that he resorted to increasing the price of drinks slightly, while continuing to provide bags of sugar as usual at the tables, as each table “has a box of wrapped bags of sugar that the customer can use as he wants.”
Recent weeks have witnessed a crisis in sugar prices and a shortage in the supply of the commodity in some areas, and the price of a kilo jumped to levels around 50 pounds in the free market, but the Ministry of Supply quickly intervened to work to solve this crisis by pumping quantities of sugar into the markets, including quantities At a reduced price of 27 pounds per kilo in order to increase supply and confront the greed of some merchants who exploit the crisis.
As these efforts continued in recent days, the price of a kilo of free sugar declined to about 35 pounds per kilo in the markets, after increasing the supply of sugar in the markets and making it available to citizens at the outlets of the Ministry of Supply and consumer complexes, as well as some wholesale outlets in a number of regions at reduced prices.
This month, the Ministry of Supply announced the disbursement of a kilogram of free sugar for a ration card whose number of beneficiaries is less than 4 individuals, and the disbursement of 2 kilograms of free sugar for a ration card of 4 individuals or more, at a price of 27 pounds per kilo, through outlets for disbursing ration goods.
2023-12-27 15:27:00
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