Egyptians are anticipating an increase in the prices of “free” or tourist bread, according to assurances from the “Bakery Division of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce” indicating an increase of 15 percent, and government assurances that “the demands for this increase will be studied.”
Egypt is witnessing successive waves of high prices and a continuous rise in the prices of most commodities, exacerbated by regional tensions in the region. The government approved increases in the prices of various services (gasoline, electricity, water, communications) last period.
Abdullah Ghorab, head of the General Bakeries Division at the General Federation of Chambers of Commerce, says, “The Ministry of Supply is considering increasing the prices of tourist bread and fino by 15 percent.” He confirms to Asharq Al-Awsat that “the ministry’s final decision regarding the expected increase will be determined early next week.” He explained the Division’s request regarding the increase by saying that “a ton of flour has risen by 4,000 pounds (the dollar equals 52 pounds), and it is difficult for merchants to adhere to the current prices previously set by the Ministry of Supply.”
Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Sherif Farouk explained that “the General Division of Bakeries submitted a request to increase the price of tourist bread by a percentage commensurate with the rise in the price of free flour, in light of the high prices of wheat used in its production.”
He added in televised statements with journalist Amr Adeeb on his program on MBC Misr, on Monday evening, that “the request submitted by the General Division of Bakeries is currently being studied, in addition to carefully reviewing the cost elements, to determine the size of the actual increase in the cost of production, and the extent to which it is reflected in the cost of producing the loaf.”
He also pointed out that “the Ministry of Supply does not deal with the request to increase the price of tourist bread from one angle, but rather reviews the various cost elements and variables related to the production market, in light of the request submitted by the General Division of Bakeries.”
The Ministry of Supply had stressed in a statement, on Monday evening, that the owners of tourist and French bakeries should adhere to Ministerial Directive No. 5 of 2026, which regulates the prices and weights of free bread and fino, stressing that “the ministerial directive is still in effect.”
The Ministry confirmed that “any violation of the provisions of the ministerial directive will be faced with the necessary legal measures against violators, which in some of its provisions amount to imprisonment and a fine.” It also indicated “the intensification of oversight campaigns on bakeries in various governorates after monitoring violations related to prices and weights,” and called on citizens to “report any violations related to the prices or weights of tourist bread and fino.”
Forty-year-old Amina Abdel Hamid, a housewife who lives in the Ain Shams area (east of Cairo), noticed a change in the price of “tourist living.” She says, “A few days ago, the price of a loaf was increased by 50 piasters,” pointing out, “I was buying a small loaf for 2 pounds, and suddenly it reached 2.50 pounds, and when I asked the bakery owner about this increase, he did not answer me.” Abdel Hamid used to buy a small loaf for two pounds and a large loaf for three pounds.
The ministerial directive for “Supply” stipulates that the maximum price for a loaf of free tourist bread weighing 80 grams is two pounds, a loaf of 60 grams weighs at 1.5 pounds, and a loaf of 40 grams weighs at one pound.
“Bread” constitutes the main ingredient on Egyptians’ tables, and according to previous official statistics from the Ministry of Supply, about 73 million citizens receive popular subsidized bread through “ration cards,” which number about 23 million cards. According to observers, “thousands of Egyptians who do not have ration cards are forced to buy (tourist bread) at a free price.”
Merchants and bakery owners are demanding that the Ministry of Supply increase the price of tourist bread in light of the recent rises in the cost of production. Hamdi Farghali (a pseudonym), the owner of a tourist bakery in the Matareya area (east of Cairo), told Asharq Al-Awsat: The prices of tourist bread must be reconsidered in conjunction with the high cost of production requirements, especially flour.
He confirms that “the price of a ton of flour has risen from 16.5 thousand pounds since last June to 20 thousand pounds now.” He points out that “the Ministry promised to review flour prices, and if they continue at their current levels, it will reconsider the prices of tourist bread in light of the new production costs,” but he said that “the Ministry has not determined the percentage of the potential increase at the present time.”
But economic expert Mustafa Badra believes that “it is likely to approve an increase estimated at about 15 percent on (tourist bread) with an increase in wheat, which is estimated at 4 or 5 thousand pounds per ton of wheat.”
He explained to Asharq Al-Awsat that “this increase in wheat has a return and is charged to the final consumer, and this is the policy followed by the government to transfer any increase to the final consumer.” He points out that “as long as there are changes in price levels, they will be charged to the final citizen.”
The announcement of an expected increase in the price of “tourist bread” was not the first. During the past month, the “Bakery Division” said that “there is an increase in the price of tourist bread estimated at about 12.5 percent.”
But Ghorab confirmed that “this increase was not implemented at the time,” explaining: “We asked the ministry for it last August, and we confirmed our desire to do so, and the ministry promised then to study it; But it was not implemented.”
Ghorab is conditional on “the failure to implement the new increase on the stability of supply chains,” and confirms that “a search is underway for new origins of wheat.”
The government had previously raised the price of “subsidized popular bread” in May 2024 from 5 piasters to 20 piasters per loaf, in a move it said at the time aimed to “reduce the subsidy bill for a loaf of bread by about 130 billion pounds annually.”
According to Badra, “There must be a flexible policy with support from the government. Because the cost has become great for the simple citizen, especially in the current circumstances with global political changes,” but he does not rule out another increase in “tourist bread” if fuel prices are raised during the coming period due to the cost of transportation.
Complaints from parents in Egypt have escalated regarding difficulties in the curricula of the basic (pre-university) stages of education, after extensive amendments made to them by the Ministry of Education this year, with the start of their application to students with the start of the new academic year on September 12, amid demands to ease the curricula.
A member of the House of Representatives from the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, Sanaa Al-Saeed, submitted a parliamentary question addressed to the Minister of Education and Technical Education, Mohamed Abdel Latif, regarding “parents’ complaints about the difficulty and intensity of primary school curricula, and the high study loads and assessments imposed on children.”
The representative said that parents’ complaints have increased regarding the size and difficulty of the curriculum, in addition to the large number of assignments and assessments, which require long hours of studying daily, which has turned into a great pressure on the children and their families, and affects the time for rest, play, activities, and the child’s social life.
She pointed out that a number of parents expressed their fears that these constant pressures would lead to children’s aversion to education, instead of education being a means of building their personalities and developing their abilities and love of knowledge.
The Egyptian Minister of Education confirmed, during a recent meeting with Egyptian media professionals and journalists, that his ministry had succeeded in developing 94 curricula at the various levels of basic education, in addition to developing 160 curricula in the current academic year, including the “Egyptian Baccalaureate” curricula, noting that this development “was done without financial cost to the ministry.”
From time to time, parents in Egypt complain about the difficulties of the curricula, but this year the complaints escalated, and they focused more on the mathematics curricula for the third grade of primary school, which the Egyptian Ministry of Education developed through a partnership with the Japanese side, and included amending the mathematics curricula for the first, second, and third grades, in addition to developing the science curricula for the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades.
Curricula above the level of students
“The crisis in the new curricula remains that they are above the level of the students, and if we look at the mathematics curriculum for the primary grades, it was placed on arithmetic foundations that the student was supposed to have learned in the previous grades. This did not happen, and therefore the arithmetic operations remain complex for the student, and there is no preparation for the students on how to deal with them,” as Shaima Samir, the mother of one of the students, confirmed on her Facebook page.
In conjunction with the escalation of complaints, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly held a meeting, on Monday, with the Minister of Education, Mohamed Abdel Latif, and the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Abdel Aziz Qanswa, in which he demanded “clarification of everything related to the availability of education and the quality of the educational process, in a way that ensures that the issues that concern Egyptian families are clearly addressed.”
Meanwhile, a mother of five students in different stages of education called for easing the new curricula to keep them in line with the students’ mental levels, and providing teachers with the ability to teach the new courses and recognize their educational dimensions, noting that students face a lot of pressure, and this leads to increased reliance on “private lessons,” not dispensing with them.
Confusing adjustments
She added in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat that the introduction of continuous amendments to the curricula caused confusion among students, and this led to difficulties in adapting to them, noting that the complaints focus on the difficulties of the “mathematics” subject for the third grade of primary school, in addition to complaints about the intensive scientific subject in the subjects of science and social studies in the primary stage as well, as well as the new “baccalaureate” curricula, especially the “business administration” and “programming” curricula.
On the other hand, the Egyptian Ministry of Education downplayed the impact of the curriculum difficulties, and the Assistant Minister of Education for Curriculum Development, Dr. Akram Hassan, confirmed in television statements on Monday that “the difficulty felt by students in the third grade of primary school curricula is apparent and temporary, and results from the transition from the old traditional methods to a modern method.” He expects that these complaints will disappear completely within about a month, once students and teachers engage in the philosophy of learning.
Since the Egyptian Minister of Education disclosed his plan for the current academic year before the Senate (the second chamber of Parliament), the debate has not stopped over the challenges of expanding reliance on Japanese curricula in Egyptian public education, amid fears of poor returns on students in an environment accustomed to focusing on academic achievement, not on activities that are considered a main input to the success of the “Japanese experiment.”
Professor of Educational Psychology at Cairo University, Dr. Assem Hegazy, believes that parents’ complaints are based on real difficulties in the curricula, pointing out that there must be a distinction between curricula that were prepared by Egyptian experts and had some problems and errors that were corrected, and translated foreign curricula such as the “Accounting” and “Programming” curricula for baccalaureate students, which do not find a qualified teacher to teach them.
He added in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat that the “mathematics” curriculum for the third grade of primary school is taught to students who are not qualified to deal with it because it depends on problem-solving methods and critical thinking, and the Egyptian student’s peers in Japan were taught these curricula after prior qualification in previous years, indicating that the Japanese curriculum needs an integrated system that includes the appropriate school climate, the trained teacher, and the prepared student, which is something that is not available in Egyptian schools.
From his point of view, the solution that can alleviate the crisis now is for the Egyptian Ministry of Education to adopt the task of explaining the difficult curricula through videos that are broadcast to all schools so that students can benefit from them, and help teachers understand its philosophy, in addition to alleviating some of them, taking into account the application of the Japanese system of education to all curricula, and not specific curricula and leaving out others.
Tariq Abdel Rahman stands behind a small “pallet” in one of Omdurman’s markets, on which he sells household supplies. In another part of the market, his sister Mawada sells light foods, such as falafel, fava beans, spices, and snacks. At the end of the day, the two return with what they have earned to help their family, displaced from El Fasher, buy food and medicine.
Since the Rapid Support Forces took control of El Fasher in October 2025, the family does not know the fate of the father, Abdel Rahman Idris, a soldier, nor the fate of his son Idris. The mother, Rahma Adam, told Asharq Al-Awsat: “I have not received my husband’s salary yet, and we depend on Tariq’s work and the intermittent affection and support that comes to us from those around us.”
The family arrived in Khartoum carrying with them their concern for the missing people, and found themselves facing the burdens of housing, living, and treatment. in the beginning.
El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, had spent about 18 months under siege imposed by the Rapid Support Forces, amid repeated bombings and a severe shortage of food and medical care. In October 2025, the forces took control of the city, and residents fled through dangerous roads, while families were separated and lost contact with their members. Among those families is the Rahma family, which arrived in Khartoum without knowing the fate of the father and his son.
Rahma prepared falafel and spices and sold them to buy flour, sugar, soap, and other necessities. But she stopped working about a month ago after her health deteriorated.
She says: “My heart hurt, and when I saw a specialist in the city of Atbara, they told me that I had an enlarged heart muscle.” She adds that she received medications, but her condition worsened again, and she no longer had enough money to buy them. She hopes to travel to Cairo for treatment if her circumstances permit, but she says: “Currently we have almost nothing.”
According to a monitoring of the markets in February 2026, the value of the basket of minimum basic household expenses in Sudan amounted to about 515 thousand pounds per month (about 50 dollars). This is an estimate at the national level, and not an account of Rahma’s family’s expenses, but it shows the size of the cost of basic needs before adding treatment and transportation.
Price fluctuations make it more difficult to meet these needs. On September 22, Reuters quoted a shopper in Omdurman that the price of a liter of cooking oil rose within a week from 17,000 to 23,000 pounds. It quoted a worker in the city who earns about 500,000 pounds per month as having to work as a part-time driver to cover his expenses. His salary does not represent the average wage or income for Rahma's family, but it gives a picture of the price pressure on workers in the city.
Tariq goes out to the market in the morning and returns in the evening with whatever sales he can. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that his income is limited, but it has become an essential resource for the family after his mother’s illness: “Our main concern has become to work every day and save what we can until these circumstances pass.”
Mawaddah continues the work that her mother used to do, selling food and spices, then returning to help her at home and accompany her to the doctor. She says: “What we get is not enough to cover all our needs, but it helps us buy food and some necessities.” For her, work became “a means of survival and making ends meet” in the absence of a stable income.
As for their sister, Manal, she was in the third year in the Sociology Department at the Faculty of Arts at El Fasher University. She tried to continue her studies after moving the university to Omdurman, but the fare to return from the family’s place of residence was not available regularly. She says: “I want to complete my education, but the road fare has become competitive with the needs of food and my mother’s treatment for the little money available, so I dropped out of school.”
When the family arrived in Khartoum, neighbors provided them with clothes, sheets, beds, and some household utensils, helping them start their life in the place of displacement. But this assistance did not provide a continuous income. With Rahma stopping work, the children were faced with one question every morning: Are today’s sales sufficient for food at home and treatment for the mother?
Between a father and a son whose fate is unknown, a mother awaiting treatment, and a daughter who dropped out of university, the impact of the war appears in small daily details: a meal that must be provided, medicine that may be delayed in purchasing, and transportation fare that is not available. At the end of each day, the family returns with what they collected from the market, then prepares for a new attempt the next morning.
