Over the years, the Egyptian fresh produce industry has steadily become known for its high quality and attention to detail. Despite difficult climatic conditions this season, 2010 will be no exception.
Having just finished a successful strawberry campaign at the end of last year, the industry is now preparing to send its first consignments of grapes to the UK in May. On the vegetable front, bobby beans can be produced and exported year round; fine beans will make their way to the UK until June from the start of the season in September; mangetout and sugarsnap peas finished their four-month run in March; and spring onions will continue until May.
Citrus fruit, especially oranges, is a large part of the Egyptian portfolio and exports started to make their way over to the UK just before the Christmas period and will continue until next month.
Egyptian grower and exporter SONAC exported oranges in substantial amounts to the UK market for the first time this year through importer Fruitmann, and eventually hopes to send grapefruit to the UK. The company, which produces on 500 acres of land in the Wadi El Molak area, starts its orange harvest with the Navel variety in December and moves onto Valencia by mid-February.
“The weather has been an issue and colouration of the Valencia variety has been slow; we used to achieve full colouration by the beginning of March, but we are only at 95 per cent colouration even now,” says Khaled Dawoud, business development manager at SONAC. “Quantity-wise, we have produced the same amount as last year, but a lot has gone into juicing, where the appearance of the skin does not matter.
“We are now looking for new varieties of grapefruit and easy peelers to increase our production, and hope to eventually send them to the UK. At the moment, we produce a small amount of Star Ruby pink grapefruit for Middle Eastern markets.”
SONAC expects to export 45,000 tonnes of citrus to all of its customers throughout the world this season and believes that its sendings to the UK will increase in time. “It makes sense to produce citrus fruit in Egypt because the cost of production for this particular line is comparatively cheap,” says Dawoud. “The domestic market is good and consumption around the world is high. We will continue to concentrate on citrus and produce more, but to succeed in the UK market you need to have a fit business, be inventive and invest in new varieties to offer a point of difference.”
The Egyptian grape season is expected to start towards the end of May and usually continues until mid-July. Magrabi Agriculture - a private investment sector company owning and managing an investment project with capital of more than $100 million (£64.9m) in Egypt - mainly exports grapes to the UK, Germany and mainland Europe, and is targeting central and eastern Europe for growth.
Magrabi Agriculture (MAFA farms) is located in the Nubaria area, around 170km north-west of Cairo, close to Alexandria. The company owns and manages almost 12,500a of reclaimed desert land in various parts of Egypt, as well as being dedicated to investing in human resources, promoting environmental awareness, improving safe food production and investing in research and development.
“We expect to produce a bit less than last year, but nothing is concrete until now,” says Lucy Ebrahim, assistant director of marketing and QMS. “It looks like there is going to be a decrease in production in some areas of Egypt due to the infertility of the soil, resulting from the weather conditions because the winter this season was warmer than usual. Our main challenges are finding new grape varieties that are labour-friendly with long shelf life. There is a big demand in the UK for white seedless fruit.”
Grape producer and exporter Trade Waves supplies supermarkets with approximately 1,000t of seedless red and white grapes, with 70 per cent of the crop going to the UK - an increase of 20 per cent on last year’s export volume to the UK.
“We have seen a lot of improvement this season,” explains Ahmed El-Hodaiby, general manager at Trade Waves. “The UK is the market for premium-quality produce and we are following our plan to improve the quality of our crop so we can send more to this market. We will send more to the UK this year because we have achieved the right quality. If you have the appropriate product, then you are rewarded with the right returns.
“We are now looking at new varieties to supply exactly what UK retailers want and we are working very closely with our customers.”
Trade Waves is exporting its grape crop to the UK some 10 days earlier than usual and has benefited from covering its entire crop for the first time with Italian-produced TELO plastic system, which has both improved product quality and brought forward the harvest. Although this was a huge investment, the company maintains that the exercise is worth it, considering the increase in product quality and therefore exports to the UK. Exporter Green Egypt has been supplying UK supermarkets with legumes and spring onions for more than 10 years from a collection of contracted growers in various locations in Egypt, but the company’s export manager, Mostata Bassiouny, admits that it has been an unusual year. “We have not had a cold winter and it has been hot all year round, especially in January, February and March, which are usually the coldest months,” he says. “Peas have been badly affected and it has been very unpredictable. This has not affected the quality of the product so much, but it has had an impact on our planning and contracts as the quantity available is less.”
Bassiouny says that demand from the UK market has been reasonable this season, but has seen a threat from other producing nations, such as Kenya. “None of the supermarkets want to be seen as expensive during the recession,” he tells FPJ. “There has been a lot of pressure on us. Kenya has the lowest prices and the minimum quality needed at a time when the market is focusing on price over quality. This is our main challenge; it is a very aggressive marketplace at the moment.”
Trade Waves, which grows a variety of products including strawberries and spring onions for export to the UK on 500a in Alexandria, saw success with the introduction of 500g mixed red and white grape punnets into the UK multiples, as well as a new “economy” offer of smaller grape sizes. The company believes that the new lines will prove popular once again this year.
“The market has been affected by the global recession but we have been working closely with our customers to minimise the effect on us,” says El-Hodaiby. “This has been done through the introduction of such ideas as the twin pack, which offers the consumer more choice at a similar price to the single-colour grape packs, and last year we introduced an economy line, which meant that premium customers had the option of cheaper produce.
“We have worked very hard to reduce costs and overheads, in order to survive. We used to pack grapes here to then send them to the UK to be repacked for supermarkets, but now we are packing to the supermarkets’ specifications on site in Egypt. This has cut out a lot of cost and unnecessary journeys through the supply chain as we already had a full facility to both pack and prepare produce only 10 miles from the farm.”
Despite the challenges ahead, the Egyptian fresh produce industry is optimistic. “We believe that the future of Egyptian fresh produce will be to fully comply with the EU code of production and standards, mainly to reduce levels of pesticide use and maximum residue level (MRL) and to expand on organic production since it is the new vector for safe food production,” says Ebrahim.
Trade Waves is gearing up for a boom after the recession. The company has just bought a 1,000a plot of land from a citrus producer in Memenya - tripling its current volumes. El-Hodaiby estimates that the land will produce commercial volumes within three years. Planting will begin at the end of the year. “I think business with the UK market is expanding in Egyptian horticulture,” he says. “Despite the economic situation, people are still very interested in our product in the UK and we are willing to put in the effort needed to meet UK regulations and find the new varieties needed.”
Bassiouny agrees. “The UK market will continue to be important as it is very well thought out, although it is tough because of all of the certifications,” he says. “It gives the grower peace of mind in terms of planning and it is really beneficial dealing with a category manager.”
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