Egypt’s citrus fruits exports rise to 1.22m tons as world’s second exporter

EGYPT – Egypt has exported 1,220,999 million tons of citrus abroad since the beginning of the new export season of fruits and vegetables, according to the ministry of Agriculture in the country,

Ahmed al-Attar, the head of the Central Department of Agricultural Quarantine at the ministry of agriculture, said that the country is also applying strict measures to ensure the increase of exports of agricultural products, reports Egypt Today.

According to a Cabinet’s media center issued in January this year, the Agriculture Ministry revealed that citrus fruits exports had surged in 2018 positioning the country as the world’s second exporter of citrus fruits.

During the period, the country also recorded a rebound of agricultural exports in with 5,200,000 tons, the highest figures achieved by Egypt.

In December last year, Attar said that citrus fruits and potatoes are the most exported types in Egypt in 2018, highlighting that the country had exported about 1.7 million tons of citrus fruits since the beginning of the year.

He added that the country also exported around 800,000 tons of potatoes since the beginning of 2018.

Agricultural exports outllook

According to a report released by the ministry of agriculture in November, Egypt exported 4.4 million tons of agricultural products in the eleven months period to end November 2018, representing an increase of 316,652 tons from exports in 2017.

The report also noted that Egypt exported 2.9 million tons of crops, including citrus, potatoes, onions, strawberries, beans, peppers, cucumbers, pomegranate, eggplant, mango, garlic, guava and grapes.

Last year, Egypt also secured a flexible loan of US$500 million from the World Bank to boost the agriculture sector with focused vegetables, fruits, medical and aromatic plants, and flowers value chains.

Ezz El-Din Abu Steit, the minister for agriculture said that the agricultural projects would increase Egypt’s annual revenues from agricultural exports from US$5 billion in 2017/18 to US$12 billion.

With increasing production, the North African country threatens the dominant position of Spain on the European market surpassing Spain on the list of the biggest orange exporters.

According to a report of Radio France International, an export of 1.65 million tonnes has been projected for this year, predicting that Egypt will start playing a more important role on the orange market, reports Fresh Plaza.