Head of the Bakeries Sector in Alexandria's Chamber of Commerce, Abdel Aal Darwish, said on Wednesday that the bakery owners agreed to postpone their planned strike for one week, giving the supply ministry a deadline to resolve their problems.

"Bakery owners in Alexandria agreed on the deadline set by al-Wakeel for only a week, afterwards the bakeries will enter into strike considering that they cannot resume production while suffering financial losses," Darwish said in a statement reported by the Middle East News Agency.

According to supply minister, Bassem Ouda, the ministry plans to ration subsidised bread within two months, which instigated protests among bakery owners.

Hundreds of bakery owners staged protests outside the supply ministry on Tuesday demanding the amendment of their contracting conditions with the ministry, saying that they did not discuss these conditions, which obliges them to what they described as contracts of adhesion.

The protesters had announced that their strike would begin on Wednesday if their demands are not met. 

Darwish denounced the ministry’s statement that had accused the bakers of attacking the ministry's headquarters. He stressed that they only staged peaceful demonstrations demanding their rights.

In response, the supply ministry's official page said that the minister has met with the head of chambers of commerce and discussed the implementation of a new system for distributing bread and agreed to postpone a meeting that was scheduled for Tuesday to an undetermined date.

The adopted system to subsidize bread sustains that the supply ministry should buy bread at its actual price from bakeries and sell it again to citizens at a lesser price, instead of giving the subsidised wheat directly to bakeries.

Ouda had said in an earlier interview with national television that the Supreme Court issued a decision granting the ministry the right to shut down bakeries and refer their owners to the criminal court if they halt production.

The Egyptian economy has been stumbling since the uprising that overthrew the former president two years ago.

Egypt is considered to be one of the biggest importers of wheat worldwide as bread is a main component in people's daily diets.

There are 19, 000 bakeries that produce subsidised bread.

Meanwhile, bakeries in Alexandria continue to work normally with subsidised wheat.