An Economic Study of the Oil Gap in Egypt

Egypt suffers from asevere shortage in its needs of edible oil, which amounts to about 494 thousand tons, to the extent that it imports about 76% of the needs of its population of edible oil, which represents a burden on the Egyptian agricultural trade balance, in addition to the high local prices, which requires Agricultural researchers pay enough attention to scientific research in this field in proportion to the importance of oil crops in the Egyptian national economy. produced . The low rates of self-sufficiency in vegetable oils and the increase in the size of the food gap year after year indicate the exacerbation of the deficit in the production of vegetable oils, as the total production of oils in Egypt is about 494 thousand tons, while the total consumption is about 1800 thousand tons annually, with a self-sufficiency rate estimated at 24.14%. The gap is about 1538 thousand tons for the year 2020, and the research aims mainly to identify the expected future trends of the rates of self-sufficiency of oil crops and vegetable oils during the study period and to identify the size of the food gap in oils and then predict the rates of self-sufficiency of oil crops and vegetable oils during a future period, The research recommends doubling the efforts made by agricultural extension agencies to advance the policy of agricultural intensification, and to make farmers more aware of the importance of agricultural intensification .