If your go-to shampoo or phone model disappeared in late 2023 and again through 2024–2025, you are not alone. The pattern boils down to three things: a two-year squeeze on foreign currency (FX) used to pay for imports, rules that stop non-compliant suppliers at the border, and some retailers cutting their footprint. Conditions improved in 2025 after the pound was floated (the rate allowed to be set by the market), but availability is still uneven.
From 2022 into early 2024, Egypt struggled to find dollars, and goods piled up at ports. The government announced several release waves: USD 15 billion (EGP 720 billion) cleared in the first quarter of 2023, then USD 63 billion (EGP 3 trillion) by 26 November 2023. A further over USD 79 billion (EGP 3.8 trillion) was released between 1 January 2024 and 8 January 2025, according to a Cabinet statement. The release of funds, however, did not help much; according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in March 2025, the “backlogs of unmet import demand have been eliminated and have not re-emerged.”
A major boost to confidence and FX liquidity came with the USD 35 billion (EGP 1.7 trillion) Ras El-Hekma investment announced on 23 February 2024, followed by the state’s approval of a special free zone in April 2024. The deal front-loaded dollars into the system, helping banks finance more imports.
At the border, compliance decides if a brand makes it onto a shelf. For readers wondering whether a disappearing brand has been “banned”, the more common answer is paperwork and cost. If a foreign factory’s certificates expire, its products cannot be cleared until the documents are renewed. The trade rules are public: Egypt’s gatekeeping system is set out in Ministerial Decree 43/2016, and companies that want to ship must appear on the GOEIC (General Organization for Export & Import Control) registration list. If the producer is not on that list, the shipment does not enter, so the product disappears from the shelf until the paperwork is back in order.
The missing link is price.
When the cost of an imported chocolate bar or a wedge of cheese jumps faster than people’s incomes, shoppers buy less of said “luxury” items, and supermarkets quietly drop the slow-moving item from the range. Headline inflation has cooled, but food costs remain jumpy: annual urban inflation eased to 12 percent in August 2025, down from 13.9 percent in July, yet in March, food prices still rose 3.5 percent in a single month. That kind of spike makes “treat” items, imported cheeses, and premium chocolates harder to sell at new shelf prices.
Why does the shelf price leap? First, because of policy: the government has long classed many non-essential goods as “luxury” and raised their customs duties to save hard currency. A 2016 presidential decree describes certain items as “provocative/unnecessary”; in other words, luxury. Accordingly, tariff hikes were imposed on hundreds of lines, including cheese, chocolate, cocoa products, biscuits, nuts, juices, and ice cream. Second, currency: when Egypt floated the Egyptian pound in March 2024, every dollar-priced invoice translated into many more Egyptian pounds at customs and at the checkout. Third, tax math: Egypt charges 14 percent VAT (value-added tax) on most goods. As for imports, the VAT base includes the customs value plus the customs duty and other levies. So when tariffs and the exchange rate push the import value up, the VAT amount rises too. Add freight, insurance, and cold-chain handling for refrigerated items, and the final shelf price can jump beyond what many households can pay. When that happens, supermarkets trim the slow-moving items, in this case, premium imported treats, until prices, demand, or paperwork improve.
Choice was also narrowed because fewer of these goods were brought in during the currency squeeze. From January to November 2024, Egypt imported dairy worth USD 741 million (EGP 35.6 billion) and chocolate and cocoa products worth USD 166 million ( EGP 8.0 billion). Compared with the full year 2023, Egypt imported dairy worth USD 722 million (EGP 34.7 billion) and chocolate and cocoa products worth USD 159 million (EGP 7.6 billion). These categories depend on dollars to pay suppliers and on shipping costs to reach Egypt, two pressure points that raised prices and trimmed what arrived.
Households have adapted by “trading down” (choosing a cheaper version of the same product), waiting for promotions, or skipping non-essentials. A national consumer survey finds more Egyptians switching to lower-priced alternatives and delaying discretionary purchases. In beverages, 2024 boycotts also nudged shoppers.
Since the Gaza war began in October 2023, Egyptian shoppers have joined boycotts of Israeli-linked products and global brands perceived to back Israel, and the effect has shown up on aisles. A 2025 academic survey of Egyptian consumers found the vast majority reported stopping purchases from targeted international brands and switching to local alternatives.
On shelves, the clearest shift has been in soft drinks: a Reuters analysis of soda sales in Egypt reported Coca-Cola volumes in Egypt fell by double digits in the first half of 2024, while domestic colas gained space, with local brand V7 saying its exports tripled year-on-year and sales in Egypt rose about 40 percent.
The result in 2025 is a partial normalisation, not a return to pre-2022 conditions. The IMF stated the parallel-market gap (the difference between official and street exchange rates) has closed, and import backlogs are gone, which helped shelves refill. But, the availability of products still depends on three practical things: steady access to dollars at banks, a supplier’s GOEIC status, and each firm’s decision on pricing and how many stores they run.
When a favourite brand disappears, it is rarely a mystery and rarely a ban; it is usually a mix of dollars, documents, and business decisions. Shelves are refilling as the currency market stabilises, but availability will continue to track bank liquidity, company strategy, and rule-of-origin paperwork. In the meantime, retailers and shoppers alike are learning to plan around longer lead times and tighter compliance.
Comments (0)