There was a time not so long ago that the mention of Egypt conjured up pictures of ancient pyramids, pharaohs and holidays on the Red Sea. After the Arab Spring of 2011 and the fall of Mubarek we think first of riots in Tahrir square and people being killed and injured in the demonstrations for democracy and a better deal for ALL Egyptians.

Egypt has a population of 90m with 30m of these living in the sprawling chaos that is Cairo today. Imagine if nearly half of the UK population lived in London. Coupled with this 52m of this population are supported by government ration cards to help them feed themselves every day, this is where our humble Faba bean comes in.

Most Egyptians, Muslim and Coptics alike start the day with Faba beans, consumed as the Ful Medames. The Faba bean is one of the cheapest pulses available and will give sufficient energy to see a person through most of the day, in fact during Ramadan it needs to and is often consumed after dark as well for the evening feast.

Egyptians consume around 600,000 tonnes of faba a year with the main origins being;

Domestic supply 60,000, Australian 200,000, UK 150-200000, France 150-200,000 tonnes.

During the turmoil of the Arab Spring cash flow became a problem for only a short while before the flow of Dollars resumed. Over the following 2 years with the country’s reserves falling rapidly cash became an even bigger issue. The Egyptian pound (EGP) devalued heavily against the dollar making life tough for everyday people, coupled with this the banks simply could not supply sufficient green backs for business to continue. A situation developed where we had money men selling dollars on the black market at a much reduced rate to the official rate. Traders who had EGP were reluctant to go to the black market for bucks because the increased cost often meant any profit disappeared from their deal. This lead to people walking away from agreed deals with little course for recompense for the seller, don’t even think about any legal jiggery pokery……

So in April 2013 things looked very grave and despite help from the IMF UK traders were treading very cautiously in their dealings in Egypt. Then of course the Army took over again, Morsi was under house arrest and members of the Muslim brotherhood were locked up, I bet they never thought a 90% Muslim country would turn on them so quickly. Car window stickers were even seen saying “ Mr Mubarek we are sorry”

The Coptics had suffered 2 years of taunts from the Muslim majority that they wouldn’t be able to muster a rally/riot big enough to fill Tahrir square, in the end the Muslims helped them do it.

Now we have, or will have a kind of stability and with good old Uncle Sam feeling more comfortable, if not more in control, the dollars will flow and normal trade will resume.

All we can do to help is to sell as many beans to Egypt as possible at a price which is affordable for all and then go and spend our dollars on holiday in the red sea resorts.