As Egypt’s economic crisis deepens, an affordable meal is hard to find
But with food prices rising rapidly in the face of a growing economic crisis, even the most low-cost meals are becoming more expensive to make — hitting the margins of koshary kingpins like Youssef Zaki, the owner of Abou Tarek, as well as the pockets of regular Egyptians.
Just when Egypt hoped to recover from the pandemic, which saw its massive tourism sector essentially grind to a halt, Russia invaded Ukraine. The war set off a series of unexpected repercussions across the region, hitting Egypt particularly hard.
Foreign investors withdrew billions of dollars from the country within weeks of the invasion, unsettling the economy. Egypt also imports more wheat than any other country — most of it from Russia and Ukraine. The cost of wheat and oil began to soar while tourism numbers dropped again due to a longtime reliance on Russian and Ukrainian visitors.
Egypt is now facing one of its worst periods of inflation in years, and regular Egyptians are largely paying for it.
Food and drink prices have increased by 30.9 percent since this time last year. Earlier this year, the official exchange rate was once 15.6 to the dollar. Now it sits at 24.7. On the black market, one dollar can be sold for as many as 33 pounds. Banks are limiting the withdrawal of dollars to try to keep cash in the country. Many Egyptians are forgoing indulgences — from avoiding dining out to postponing weddings — hoping costs might soon go down.
Luckily for Zaki, koshary remains a major staple in the Egyptian diet.
To avoid raising prices Zaki knows his customers can’t afford, Abou Tarek has made its portions slightly smaller. Even so, their customer base has somewhat dwindled. With dozens of employees between the kitchen, waitstaff and delivery teams, Zaki now has the same number of workers to pay as before — just less money to do it.
The same customers who once bought “a big plate of koshary, they might buy a smaller one,” Zaki said, sitting on a plastic chair on the street outside, as passing fans gave him the celebrity treatment, interrupting the interview to take photos with him.
“Instead of eating three meals, people might eat just one or two,” he said.
To blame the crisis solely on the war in Ukraine would be “barely true,” said Egyptian political economist Wael Gamal. Years of borrowing and investment in megaprojects made Egypt especially vulnerable, he said. Those projects have been championed by President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, who took power in a military coup in 2013 and has made infrastructure development a hallmark of his presidency.
In December, after months of…
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