الفهرس 
AcknowledgementOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 205 |  |  |
| | | from | 205 | | |
Abstract
The food price subsidy policy was first implemented in Egypt at the early fifties to uplift the burdens of low income categories of the people by making basic food supplies available at low prices and in sufficient quantities. During that era, food subsidy never constituted a burden to the government’s budget, and it so continued up-unt il the year 1973 when the internat i ona I nutri t i on crises took place which resulted into a sharp increase in food supplies prices. Despite that the government exerts, there were indicators that subsidized commodities were shared even by the rich strata of the society which led to great losses to both the government and the c it i z ens. The study aims at determining the economic and nutritional factors related to the benefits from different subsidized food commodities and to evaluate the effect of partial discontinuation of food price subsidy on patterns and the fami ly consumption of different food food commodities, also to determine the people’s opinion regarding the cancellation of food price subsidy system and their plebiscite on the alternatives. The research was conducted in two phases. The first a phase in 1988 involved 300 families chosen at random from the Alexandrian community to represent different categories of the society. After one year, i.e. in 1989, 240 families were reinterviewed in order to study the changes which occurred during this year (second phase). The head of each family was privately interviewed by the investigator using a predesigned questionnaire which included: questions related to the social status of the family, total family income, pattern of expenditure in L order on food determine the relative expenditure commodities, the consumption patterns of food commodities whether obtained through the rationing cards or government retail collect designed to if questionnaire shops, the was also information the of ration cards type on available. If not, the reason why the family did not obtain one, also the number of persons listed in the card and the extent to which families their share in aware of are rationing, and whether or not, the quantities are sufficient. the questionnaire also included questions about the adequacy of various types of foods provided through the ration cards, their cost and whether the price is suitable. The part concerning bread aimed at determining the relative consumption of different types of bread in relation to the total quantity purchased and the use of the left over bread, and to determine the best means to improve the quality of bread from the consumer’s point of view. Questions related commodities subsidized food to obtained through government retail shops like fish, meat, chicken, hydrogenated oils, aimed at determining the real bene fit t ing group, bes ide s determining the factors hindering the reach of these commodities to target group and what is the best means to obtain these commodities. The next part dealt with the opinion of the consumers towards the current food price subsidy system, the means of distribution of the subsidized food commodities and the best way to deliver them to target group. The interviewed pers ons were a 1 so request ed to ident i fy the popu I at i on group that shou I d be inc I uded in a food pri c e subs idy programme. One year after the completion of phase I, 240 samples were re interviewed using the same questionnaire to determine the changes in the consumption patterns due to changes in prices which had happened during this year due to reduction in the food price subsidy by the government and following reduction of quantities of food commodities obtained through the ration cards. The results of the study indicated that the food commodities distributed by the ration cards do not cover the needs of all the families. The degree of inadequacy differed in accordance with different food commodities. The highest degree of adequacy for the interviewed persons as a whole was for oil (39.26) while the least adequacy was for tea (11.66). Even though the low degree of adequacy involved all the samples under study, it was still clear that there was a relation between the degree of adequacy and the family income. Al so the period between the two phases of the study had an effect on this percentage, as the low income families were mostly more sufficient than the middle income families in both phases. The increase in the prices of food commodities in the free market and the difficulty to obtain them, also affected the degree of adequacy as this degree increased as a who I e for all categories of the interviewed persons excluding rice as the per capita entitlement was reduced tremendously. The food commodities prices were adequate to 73.2 of the persons interviewed in the first phase, but this degree was reduced to 49.77 of the persons interviewed in the first phase, but this degree was reduced to 49.77 in the second phase, due to the increase in prices and the reduction in amounts. The study interviewed do revealed that 45.33 of the persons not consume all the bread purchased. Although this per cent has slightly decreased after the increase in the price of bread during the second phase (52.20), it still represents a great waste in the consumption of bread for all the interviewed persons, though 37.4 claimed that they reuse the unconsumed bread in different ways.