Spatial Planning of the Egyptian Wheat Crop Using the Transportation Model

Wheat is considered one of the most important strategic crops in Egypt, as it holds significant economic, agricultural, and nutritional importance for the majority of the population. Therefore, the government attaches great importance to increasing domestic wheat production in order to reduce the gap between production and consumption and to limit imports, which reached about 14.20 million tons, valued at 4.443 million USD in 2024.The study aims to propose two mathematical transportation models: The first model connects the wheat-exporting countries and Egypt’s import ports considering with, account supply and demand quantities, port capacities, and transportation costs.and the other model connects production areas (import aggregation zones combined with local production) to different consumption regions, in accordance with each governorate’s needs and the transportation costs between production and consumption areas.The research relied on solving the transportation model using the “Vogel’s Approximation Method (V.A.M.)” through the “WinQSB” program to ensure that goods reach consumers at the lowest cost and highest efficiency. The results indicated that the Russian Federation was the main source of wheat imports to Egypt in 2024, with 8.5 million tons valued at about 3.1 million USD, representing 60% and 69% of Egypt’s total wheat import quantity and value, respectively.The model suggested distributing these quantities among Egypt’s ports, with Alexandria Port being the most significant, handling about 5.38 million tons at a total transportation cost of 112.91 million USD, followed by El-Dekheila Port with 2.9 million tons at a cost of 60.8 million USD, and Damietta Port with about 254 thousand tons at a total cost of 5.6 million USD.And also showed the superiority of Alexandria Governorate of the quantities redistributed to other governorates. This is due to its role as the main import quantity for wheat through Alexandria and El-Dekheila Ports, in addition to its local production. The model proposed redistributing the quantities to the following governorates (in thousand tons): Alexandria (1084.1), Beheira (173.5), Gharbia (676.5), Kafr El-Sheikh (209.6), Dakahlia (763.9), Damietta (316.3), Sharqia (1548.4), Ismailia (186.6), Port Said (130.7), Matrouh (104.7), and North Sinai (99.5), with total transportation costs amounting to approximately 65, 12.1, 54.1, 18.9, 76.4, 34.8, 185.8, 24.2, 18.3, 20.9, and 24.9 thousand EGP, respectively.The study recommends: Diversifying wheat import sources to reduce the risks associated with dependence on a single country, Enhancing the infrastructure of Egyptian ports as part of the “Egyptian Ports Development Project”, particularly Alexandria, El-Dekheila, and Damietta Ports, as they are the main gateways for imported wheat, and Supporting the National Grain Silos Project in Egypt, which aims to establish strategic collection and storage centers near ports and agricultural production areas to minimize quantitative and qualitative losses.