Foreign trade and its impact on the nutritional balance of the most important leguminous crops in Egypt

This study aimed to study the development of bean and lentil production and their importance in Egyptian agriculture, the food balance, the position of exports and imports of these two crops, and the most important reasons leading to the occurrence of the nutritional problem whether from the production or the consumer side. In addition, the study aims to develop some proposals that contribute directly or indirectly to reducing the food gap and achieving self-sufficiency in light of the available resources. The study relied on the methods of economic descriptive and statistical analysis. With regard to production capacity, it was found that there was an annual decrease in the cultivated areas of faba bean and lentils by about 13018.8, 160.10 acres, an annual decrease in total production for each of them by 17208.2 and 93.01 tons during the period 2002-2017, respectively. It also showed an annual increase in the average production of acres of lentils by about 0.01 tons during the study period. Regarding the food balance, it was found that there was a decrease in quantities consumed of faba bean by about 4.95 thousand tons, an increase in the loss of lentils by about 0.32 thousand tons, and an increase in the nutritional gap of the faba bean by about 13.00 thousand tons. It also showed an increase in quantities of exported faba bean and lentils by about 1.88, 0.70 thousand tons, a decrease in the percentage of self-sufficiency from each of them by about 2.94, 0.13%, and a decrease in the average per capita share of each of them by about 0.20, 0.03 kg /year, respectively. With regard to the foreign trade of the products under study, there was an increase in the amount of imports of both faba bean and lentils by about 11.91, 0.23 thousand tons, and an increase in the prices of tons imported from each of them by about 420.4, 738.7 EGP, and an increase in the import values of each by about 198964, 68,552 thousand EGP during the period 2002-2017, respectively. By studying the relative instability of the imported quantities, the price per ton, and the total value of the imported quantities of beans and lentils, it was found that those crops did not enjoy the relative stability of the variables related to each of the imported quantities, their prices, and the total value of the total quantities imported. This is due to fluctuations related to both the locally produced quantities and their prices on the one hand, the quantities available for import and their global prices on the other hand, or both. This requires work to increase these products and rationalize the quantities consumed locally.