Arab FinanceMajor General Ashraf El-Sharqawi, President of the General Union of Horticultural Crops Producers and Exporters, affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture, announced… Inauguration of the first olive quality councilIt aims to raise the level of quality and efficiency of Egyptian olives for export and local consumption by providing support to small and medium-sized olive farmers and exporters, and cooperation and integration with all parties working in the sector.
Al-Sharqawi said that the council will provide technical, administrative and local marketing support to small and medium-sized olive farmers by establishing, rehabilitating, or increasing the effectiveness of local, civil and cooperative associations in areas where olive cultivation is concentrated in Egypt, and working to organize the relationship between small and medium-sized olive producers throughout Egypt. And between major local producers, exporters and wholesalers to increase integration and cooperation between them to raise production and increase exports.
He pointed out the need to effectively contribute to the integration of supply chains in Egypt to achieve Egypt’s strategy and increase awareness of olive production according to the specifications required at the packing and storage stage in the supply chain, by raising the quality of olive products, achieving pesticide-free products, and cooperating with all parties concerned with support. Technical support for olive production in Egypt, and holding follow-up meetings and implementing Egypt’s strategy for promoting olive cultivation.
In addition to setting clear policies to be implemented on the ground on which the state relies on developing the olive sector to achieve sustainable agriculture in the region and excellence and leadership locally, regionally and internationally, and creating an appropriate environment for developing the olive sector through specific applied scientific strategies to support farmers and investors in particular and society in general by disseminating Knowledge in the areas of the Council, following implementation mechanisms with the highest level of efficiency, introducing the culture of olive cultivation on scientific foundations, and introducing investment and marketing opportunities for the products.
The head of the Union of Horticultural Crops Producers and Exporters added that the council also aims to provide high-quality seedlings to sell to farmers in cooperation with the Horticultural Research Institute, in addition to technical training on proper agricultural transactions and improving quality and production.
For his part, Dr. Shaker Arafat, Director of the Institute of Food Technology at the Ministry of Agriculture, said that randomness in all stages of production, manufacturing and marketing is one of the most important problems of the olive sector in Egypt, in addition to the absence of an independent entity for olives. The main controller in this sector now is a group of merchants who control the sector in terms of price. The product, whether table olives or the price of olive oil, and not relying on the variety map and following the method of imitating olive cultivation according to the previous ones and buying seedlings from uncertified nurseries.
In addition to the absence of Egyptian brand names from global markets, and although Egypt ranks first and third in global production during the last six years, it ranks ninth in financial returns from exports. This is due to the fact that olive products and olive oil are exported raw and there are no companies that carry out packaging. They are offered for sale under the names of internationally known Egyptian brands, and olives are packaged in Egypt for some non-Egyptian companies under the name of special brands for these companies. There are also some countries that export table olives in a smaller quantity than Egypt, but their economic return is higher, such as the country of Tunisia.
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