The Egyptian soft fruit and citrus offer has taken some impressive steps forward in the last few years, with growers and exporters determined to produce the right varieties to the correct standards and supply them at the right time.
The North African country is becoming an increasingly important source for the UK and has worked hard to become a high-quality supplier in its own right, rather than an alternative to the likes of Spain, Israel and Morocco.
This season’s strawberry supply kicked off last week with small volumes, while citrus is expected to come on stream in the first week of December, with growers and exporters anticipating a 10 per cent drop in volumes on last year.
The most popular strawberry varieties include Festival, Winter Dawn and Tamar, while growers are moving away from Sweet Charlie to avoid shaky starts to the season. The citrus mainstays are Navel, Baladi and Valencia oranges, which are well recognised on the global market.
Ahmed El Aguizy, managing director of El Aguizy, part of the Gozour group, says both the berry and citrus seasons are expected to shape up well. “It is a normal year for both lines,” he says. “Everything is on time and the fruit looks good, on both berries and citrus. Strawberry exports started last week with Winter Dawn and Festival. We will start sending oranges from December 7, when Egypt will be allowed to export to the UK.
“This year, fruit quality is going to be better than last year because weather conditions have been in our favour. At the same time, a lot of the major exporters have upgraded their grading and packing facilities.
“Everything seems to be picking up and demand is stable; the season of uncertainty that we had last year is behind us now - it is back to work and business as usual.”
Tarek Bedir, assistant export manager at Magrabi Agriculture, says that productivity is generally on the up across the country and that no supply challenges have been anticipated on either category. However, he admits that Egyptian growers and exporters will have to keep raising their game to reach their potential. “The main challenges facing Egyptian growers are to find new varieties suitable to our climate,” says Bedir. “Egyptian growers and exporters are developing from one year to another and adopting the highest standards in order to raise their quality.”
The strawberry offer comes on stream first and so far, the harvest is on track. Across the category, growers and exporters are working hard to make the most of popular varieties and continue to open up European markets.
Pico Agriculture has been harvesting strawberries since November 10 and volumes are building as expected. This year, the firm’s production and exports of strawberries will be more than 30 per cent higher than last season.
Heike Hagenguth, from Pico, is confident that Egyptian growers and exporters will be able to move past the economic downturn this season and that the firm remains committed to the UK market. “Of course, Pico - like all exporters - has been affected by the drop in the exchange rate, but was able to compensate losses by increased volumes during last season,” she says. “As the exchange rate is now stable, we have a more solid base to calculate on. Moreover, increased production and exports help us to accommodate losses related to exchange rate. As Pico has been co-operating with UK clients for a long time, we remain loyal to our clients and keep on supplying them, as we still have a profitable market in the UK.
“We are always trialling new strawberry varieties with clients and varieties will go commercial later on. And we are always striving to increase the packaging to decrease the airfreight costs per kilo.”
Moving on to the citrus side, growers and exporters are also making strides as they continue to focus on popular varieties that have long been accepted by the UK market.
Pico will export oranges to the UK, Europe and Asia for the first time this year, starting with Navels in December, followed by Valencia for both the fresh and juice markets.
Prag Mistry, managing director of Fruitmann, says citrus supply is set for a promising season, with fruit colouring up well and a “buzz” in the market as the Egyptians gear up for the harvest expected in the next two weeks or so. The quality of the fruit, he says, has improved significantly year on year and will continue to step up this season. As a result, growers and exporters are looking to increase their sendings to the UK this year.
The firm, which markets oranges grown by Sonac, focuses mainly on the processing sector, with smaller volumes set for the fresh market.
“There seems to be a greater buzz in the market this year,” says Mistry. “This has made up for the element of concern that was around last year, with fears about the effects of the credit crunch and everyone more subdued. This year, there has been much more emphasis on getting business going.
“The crop forecast predicts that production will be slightly lower than last year, but from what I have heard, the volumes coming out of Egypt will be higher,” he continues. “More exporters are looking to come into the European market, initially fuelled by private investment, but in the last few years the government has done a lot of work to promote agriculture.
“However, the economic downturn has caused ferocious competition and in some cases, profit margins have been decimated. And for some time, there has been a downward trend on citrus prices in the UK. This year, for example, prices are five to 10 per cent lower than they were last season, but this is yet to deter Egyptian exporters.”
Mohammed Hosny, from Cairo-based Aratco, maintains that the recovery of sterling against the dollar over the last two months has improved prospects for the Egyptian citrus sector. The firm will export 4,300 tonnes to the UK this season, with Navel up 10 per cent and Valencia in line with last year.
But the challenges facing Egyptian growers and exporters are still many and varied, from concerns that the economic downturn will have an impact on trade to higher shipping costs and stiff competition from rival sources.
“One of the biggest hurdles faced by the Egyptian sector is to keep a co-ordinated and structured approach in the European market,” says Mistry. “There may be a fragmenting effect happening where small grower groups are coming to the market looking to make speculative deals. The next challenge will be to have a more co-ordinated export programme, or there will be a danger that companies will undermine themselves.”
Across the country, growers of all sizes are making an effort to get in line with what is required of them from the UK market in particular, in order to make the most of the opportunities to be had.
Manal Saleh, founder and general manager of Blue Moon, maintains that there is increasing interest in compliance among growers and exporters. The GlobalGAP associate member took the initiative to establish an Egyptian technical working group for fruit and vegetables back in 2008.The first meeting was hosted by GlobalGAP supplier member UPEHC in January and was attended by minister of agriculture and land reform Amin Abaza.
“We have already established the draft for the business plan for 2010, which is intended to cover some of the challenges that are facing the fresh produce industry in Egypt, especially small growers,” says Saleh. “From our point of view, the basic challenge that is facing suppliers in Egypt - as well as other countries we have seen in Africa and the Middle East - is the number of standards that the suppliers have to comply with if they have an opportunity to supply different retailers.
“Since GlobalGAP and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) Global Standard for Food Safety are driven by retailers and have been accepted worldwide, I propose that retailers consider restructuring their private standards in a modular format so that compliance to GlobalGAP or BRC, as well as the UK ETI code, would represent the first compliance criteria that has to be achieved by the supplier before being accepted within the retailer’s supply chain,” she continues.
“As soon as this stage is verified, the supplier can be introduced to the retailer’s private standard, which should include new compliance criteria that adds value to the product, process or workers’ welfare. This simple technique could provide a fair ground for all players, maintain a distinctive difference among retailers based on their priorities, streamline business activities and improve sustainability by reducing suppliers’ expenses for repetitive consultation, training and certification.”
Across the board, the Egyptian sector is determined to boost trade to Europe and the UK by coming together and making the most of its position and what is on offer. The Commercial Office of the Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt is holding its first food-related trade show, FoodGate & FreshGate, in Sharm El Sheikh, next month.
“It is unusual for Egypt to do something like this,” says Mistry. “The event really shows the determination of the Egyptian agricultural sector to promote itself. Exporters really are determined to enter the market and commercially, the numbers must stack up because there are more companies looking to export to Europe and the UK.”
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