Egypt's Ministry of Supply expects an 800,000 ton increase in the marketing of local wheat in 2013 which raises the total amount of locally produced wheat to 4.5 million tons, a top official at General Authority for Supply Commodities said on Sunday.

This increase will lower the country's wheat imports which will reduce the burden on the general budget, deputy head of the General Authority for Supply Commodities, Mamdouh Abdel Fattah, said.

The Ministry of Agriculture expects the local production of wheat to amount to 9.47 million tons during harvest season, the Middle East News Agency reported Abdel Fattah as saying.

The global market is closely linked to the effectiveness of the Egyptian market, advisor to the minister of supply, Nomani Nasr Nomani, said.

An increase in wheat demand from Egypt moves the global prices of wheat therefore price are expected to decrease towards the beginning of the next year, Nomani explained.

The Ministry of Supply aims to encourage farmers to grow wheat through a fair pricing policy that ensures those farmers an adequate marginal profit in order to attain wheat self-sufficiency.

The cabinet had announced earlier that it allocated 11 billion Egyptian pounds to buy wheat from farmers this year. Egypt is the biggest wheat importer in the world.