CAIRO – July 16, 2026: Hassan Fawzy, head of the Coffee Division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, has denied reports claiming that 80% of the coffee sold in Egypt is adulterated, describing the figure as inaccurate.
"Those who do this are factories operating under the table," Fawzy said during an appearance on MBC Masr's Happens in Egypt talk show on Wednesday.
Fawzy said the claim is completely untrue, exaggerated, and unsupported by any official statistics.
He added that he contacted Mostafa El-Sheikh, head of the Coffee Division in Alexandria, to clarify remarks El-Sheikh made during a phone interview with journalist Basma Wahba on the 90 Minutes program. According to Fawzy, El-Sheikh was referring to unlicensed factories and informal traders, not the officially regulated market.
El-Sheikh had said that an unprecedented level of disorder has recently affected a large segment of Egypt's coffee market. He claimed that adulterated and substandard coffee now accounts for approximately 80% of the coffee available in the local market and alleged that many upscale cafés use such products.
Reports have also alleged that some coffee shops and traders substitute pure coffee beans with ingredients such as ground date pits or dried peas.
In 2025, Fawzy told Al Watan newspaper that the Egyptian market consumes about 80,000 tons of coffee annually. He noted that consumption continues to rise due to population growth and increasing demand for coffee, which is the country's second most popular beverage after tea.
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