Egypt to establish company for dates production

CAIRO - 13 July 2017: Studies for the establishment of an Egyptian company for dates production are soon to be completed, Mohammed Ashmawy, Executive Director of the “Tahya Misr” Fund, said Thursday.

Ashmawy said that the company aims to realize President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi’s vision to plant 100 million palm trees, adding that the company will be the first to be established under the umbrella of the holding company that the fund has founded to boost investment.

The first phase will include the planting of 20 million palm trees in three areas, namely Siwa, West Minya and Toshka, Ashmawy said.

He added that the aim from establishing this company is to restart operations in dates’ factories and provide the technical expertise for factories’ owners and farmers for export purposes.

Percentage of wasted dates amounts to 40 percent of production due to lack of expertise.

Ashmawy said that Egypt comes first globally in dates production, producing around 1.6 million tons of dates, four per cent of which are exported.