A major billion-dollar investment in Egypt’s sugar beet sector could also see corn and wheat production in the country given a boost. The Al Canal Sugar project will see sugar beet grown on 77,000 hectares in Egypt alongside wheat through the country’s winter and corn in the summer. Egypt is the world’s biggest importer of wheat, with its own anticipated production of 8.1 million mt in the 2017/18 marketing year augmented by 11.7 million mt of imported wheat, according to the USDA – a level broadly in line with the country’s 2016/17 imports. Corn imports are expected to be in the region of 8.7 million mt for this marketing year, versus 8.7 million mt in the 2016/17 marketing year. Demand for wheat and corn is set to decline, as high domestic food prices cut into buyers’ budgets, while the country has already seen its import expectations modified as its capacity to raise capital to fund the purchases remains limited.