, Columnist
Ukraine War Gives Egypt a Wheat Crisis Only China Can Solve
Beijing’s wheat stockpile is large enough to fill the shortfall — but is it willing to step in and help?
Bread is an essential part of life in Egypt.
Photographer: Shawn Baldwin/Bloomberg
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Few non-combatant countries face a more direct hit to their living standards from Russia’s war in Ukraine than Egypt.
Cheap bread is as central to the legitimacy of the modern Egyptian state as it was to Rome in the days when the empire was fed with the grain exports of the Nile delta. Attempts to reform the subsidy regime that ensures flatbread loaves can be bought for as little as a third of a cent each led to riots in 1977, while the strain of rising food prices also helped spark the country’s Arab Spring protests in 2011.