Food industries exports expected to rise to $5B by end of 2022

CAIRO - 23 January 2022: Deputy Executive Director of the Export Council for Food Industries, Tamim El-Dawy, expected the sector's exports to grow in 2022 by about 20 percent to reach $5 billion, compared to $4.057 billion in 2021.

El-Dawy pointed out that in 2021, the Council was able to maintain growth rates of 18 percent, despite the circumstances the world has gone through, including the high cost of supply and shipping chains, and the spread of the new mutant "Omicron", which negatively affected the movement of global trade.

He explained that food industry exports account for about 13 percent of Egypt's total non-oil exports, noting that there are new companies that have entered the field of export.

The total number of exporting companies in the sector has reached about 3000 companies, and large investments are periodically pumped, especially in new products such as frozen vegetables and fruits, medicinal and aromatic plants and dates.

On the council's plan to organize promotional missions, he said that the council is working on all food industries in all countries of the world, so the focus is on each international bloc according to the type of food products that are compatible with it.

He noted that there is great interest in the African market, especially with the government raising the value of support for shipping Egyptian products to Africa in the new program to support export support to reach 80 percent, in addition to 50 percent of the basic support ratio, which encourages companies to export due to the high shipping costs.

He stressed the need to develop a specific time plan for paying the companies' dues, pointing out that the delay in disbursing the dues loses the desired return.