Egypt tops world production of table olives - Minister

CAIRO - 23 November 2018: Egypt tops the world’s countries in production of table olives with more than 18% of world production in 2017, Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Ezz el-Din Abu Steit said on Friday.

Egypt has plans to plant about 100 million olive trees by 2020 as part of the country’s project of the cultivation of the 1.5 million feddans, the minister added.

This came during the minister’s participation in the International Olive Council meeting in the Spanish capital, Madrid.

The minister said that his ministry has achieved the first goal in terms of reaching the highest production rates of table olives, and it is currently on its way to achieve the second target, through which Egypt would be among the top seven countries in olive oil production, said a statement released by the ministry on Friday.

After receiving the presidency of the coming session of the International Olive Council from Argentina, Abu Steit asserted that Egypt will cooperate with the council’s member states for boosting technical and research cooperation in the olive sectors on the international arena.

He also confirmed that Egypt is ready to host meetings of the council’s advisory committee that will be held in April.