Pickup driver Jamal Sueilem has had a hard time transporting groceries from Fayoum’s warehouse since the government-imposed curfew on Fayoum-Cairo road has slowed down traffic at the Dahshour army checkpoint, where vehicles back up after 11:00 pm, taking cars hours to pass through the checkpoint. On Fridays, the curfew starts at 7:00 pm after which time vehicles are not allowed to pass the checkpoint to Cairo.
Pickup driver Jamal Sueilem has had a hard time transporting groceries from Fayoum’s warehouse since the government-imposed curfew on Fayoum-Cairo road has slowed down traffic at the Dahshour army checkpoint, where vehicles back up after 11:00 pm, taking cars hours to pass through the checkpoint. On Fridays, the curfew starts at 7:00 pm after which time vehicles are not allowed to pass the checkpoint to Cairo.
Sueilem does not transport groceries outside the governorate in fear of risking spending a night in his car and endangering his life under the current security conditions.
When the road is closed, Sueilem has to negotiate with the checkpoint attendants to allow him to pass the checkpoint and deliver the goods he is transporting. Otherwise, he would have to go back to Fayoum or spend the night inside his truck.
Material damages
Salem Ahmad is a driver transporting groceries from Fayoum to Alexandria and from Egypt to Libya. He said the curfew has resulted in financial damages because he has to hire more men to quickly load the vehicles and send them on the road before the curfew starts. In addition, Ahmad has had to cut down the number of transports. He also does not work on Friday since the curfew starts at 7:oo pm. “We used to transport cabbage from Beheira governorate and because of the curfew, we have had to transport groceries every other day instead of daily so that we can get be back to Fayoum before the curfew. All this has forced us to increase our prices,” he explained.
Price increases
Fikry Abdul Samea, a worker at a wholesale grocery store in Fayoum warehouse, said the curfew has affected numerous products arriving to Fayoum such as guavas and oranges, which are transported from Behiera. Guavas are more vulnerable to damage due to humidity and they would not be sold if the transporting vehicle had to spend the night at Fayoum-Cairo road checkpoint. He also mentioned the spike in grocery prices—where a kilo of potatoes increased from 3.30 to 5.50 (US $ 4.8 – $8) Egyptian pounds and a crate of tomatoes (20 to 22 kilos) has gone up to 70 Egyptian pounds (US $10).
Some products such as tomatoes are prone to damage. Therefore, it is not recommended to load them on pickups for long hours since they will be damaged and dealers as well as farmers suffer huge losses, Abdul Samea stressed.
High cost of production requisites
Price increase has also affected production means. Alaa Abu Jaleel, a trader of seeds and saplings at Itsa district in Fayoum, who exports his production of vegetables and fruits to Obour Market in Cairo or the wholesale market at October 6th City, said the curfew has increased the prices of agricultural products since the cost of production requirements have also increased. “Production requisites are available everywhere, but we buy the fertilizers and pesticides that are not registered at the Ministry of Agriculture since they provide higher productivity. However, security measures on the roads have prevented their delivery to the farmer, which is good in general, but not in the interest of the farmer since those production requisites were cheap and of a higher productivity than the ones approved by the ministry,” he explained.
Abu Jaleel also referred to the fact that fertilizers and seeds companies have raised the prices of their products according the exchange rate of the US Dollar. Thus, the compulsory pricing imposed on groceries is of a great injustice to farmers because production requisites are expensive.
Gradually declining
Majdi Jab Allah, Head of Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors in Fayoum believes that negative impacts of the curfew will gradually improve. “The gradual reduction of the curfew’s hours has alleviated the problem for everyone and when it will be lifted, the movement of groceries transport at Fayoum will go back to normal.”
