Ahmed Jaber, Chairman of the Chamber of Printing & Packaging Industries of the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI), said that there was approximately a 15% hike in paper prices, increasing to 38,000 pounds from 33,000 pounds a tonne in the past two months.
High demand for paper to produce notebooks, textbooks, and pamphlets for the coming academic year is stated to be the major reason for the rise in paper price.
Jaber pointed out that paper prices had witnessed a steep climb by around 100% during the year as a result of the devaluation of the Egyptian pound several times, especially with Egypt relying on large quantities of imported paper to meet the needs of the local market.
Egypt imports about 70% to 80% of its paper from abroad, relying on local paper companies to produce the remaining requirement.
Barakat Safa, Vice President of the Stationery and Toys Division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, told online news portal Masrawy that the prices of imported books for the first semester of the new academic year was around 40% more as compared to the first semester in the year-earlier period as a result of the increase in paper prices and packaging.
