The Egyptian government on Saturday said it will intensify inspection campaigns to monitor local markets as part of its efforts to combat the wave of soaring prices that affected basic food commodities as the country welcomes the Holy month of Ramadan.

In this regard, Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawy called on executive bodies in Egyptian governorates to launch campaigns to control the markets.

The Minister said these efforts aim to prevent monopolization and ensure traders’ compliance with price controls, making sure that citizens are not exploited.

Several Egyptian religious institutions had lately interfered to curb the wave of increasing prices by saying that monopolizing commodities is religiously a forbidden act.

Last month, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned that the world could be facing a food crisis with prices soaring and crops at risk due to the war in Ukraine.

On Saturday, Shaarawy contacted a number of governors and informed them about the importance of checking on the availability of goods, and of meeting the needs and requirements of citizens throughout the month of Ramadan.

The Minister allowed this Ramadan the holding of Mawaid el-Rahman, or charity iftars, which offer different types of foods for free for the poor.

He said the governorates’ executive bodies should make sure that food products are available and in line with the measures to protect the health and safety of citizens.

Shaarawy then encouraged all youths initiatives and NGOs to work on providing food products to the people at reduced prices and to promote individual initiatives through social media.

Earlier, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said the Egyptian state was capable of providing sufficient reserves of basic commodities and absorbing the repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis. He said that Egypt has sufficient stock of goods for the coming months.