Sugar is one of the essential food products in Egypt and impairs
attention of economic policy makers. Sugar production is mainly depending
upon sugarcane and sugar beet as their contributions were 73.2% and 26.8%
respectively of the total production of sugar in Egypt which was 1369.5
thousand tons representing about 62.2% of the domestic consumption in year
2004.
The study aims at determining the optimal products combinations of
sugarcane and sugar beet to achieve high rates of self-sufficiency and return
maximization under the constraints both of water and arable lands scarcity.
The results showed that the supplier area of sugarcane is growing in
decreased rate as it reached about 253 thousand feddans as an average the
period (2000-2004) representing about 79.7% of the total area of sugarcane
in Egypt. On the other hand. the supplier area of sugar beet was doubled as it
registered 141 thousand feddan as an average of the same period with
increasing rate by 350% comparing with its counterpart in 19805.
The supply elasticity of the sugarcane was inelastic (0.18).
Conversely, the supply elasticity of sugar beet was unitary (1.03). The
domestic production of sugar was 1.369 million tons as an average of the
period 2000-2004 with increasing rate of 75.6% and 26.8% respectively
comparing with its counterpart in 19805 and 19905. The domestic
consumption of sugar was 1.981 million ions as an average of the mentioned
period with increasing of 44.3% and 34.4% comparing with its counterpart in
19805 and 19905.
The operation efficiency of the sugarcane factories reached 92% while
it was 78% in sugar beat factories. The actual production sugarcane was
more than those in Optimal combination. in contrary, the actual production of
sugar beet was less than those in the optimal combination. The return gained
from optimal combination was more than the actual combination by 16% in
the light of the average prices of the two crops during the period (1982 -
2004)
The marginal rate of substitution between the supplied sugarcane and
sugar beet. as resources to produce sugar. was -1.119 indicating that one ton
increase in supplied sugar beet will lead to 1.19 ton decrease in supplied
sugarcane. The optimal combination leads to increasing in self-sufficiency
from sugar by 82% in the light of the average prices during the period (1982 —
2004). On the other side. the self-sufficiency reached about 87% in year
2004 and reached about 91% in the light of the increase of sugar beet prices
by 20%.