CAIRO: Egypt, the world's largest wheat importer, aims to produce more than 10 million tonnes of local wheat this season, Alaa Khalil, head of the Fields Crops Research Institute at the Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday.

The figure compares with 9.5 million tonnes last season.

Egypt's state buyer usually purchases upwards of 3 million tonnes of local production for the country's subsidy programme.

The country has developed new varieties of wheat and is expanding work to level fields with the help of lasers and growing wheat on terraces this season to increase productivity, Khalil told Reuters.

Egypt aims to plant 3.5 million feddans (3.63 million acres) of wheat in the season which started in mid-November, another agriculture ministry official said on Sunday.

The domestic wheat harvest is expected to start in mid-April.