In a statement at the National Youth Conference, Egyptian Health Minister, Hala Zayed, said that the country will be completely self-sufficient in infant milk formula by next year, according to Egypt Today.

In a session on improving the health care system, she explained that the health ministry provides 22.5 million bottles of subsidised infant milk, which costs EGP 46 before subsidising, and is now disbursed for children under 6 months at EGP 5 and for those older at EGP 26.

The ministry added that there was never a problem in subsidising the infant milk, but that the shortages were caused by the fact that it was not reaching its beneficiaries. The milk will be provided to infants in the following regions using a much more efficient and systemised approach: Gharbia, Beni Suef, Suez, Ismailia, Port Said and Menoufia.

In 2016, Egypt’s Armed Forces began overseeing the importation of infant formula, as protest broke out due to price hikes in milk. Egypt’s Health Ministry blamed importers for monopolizing infant milk formula, and Armed Forces imported millions of packages of infant milk to solve this crisis.

Main image from Horrya.net