New production line for dates inaugurated in Matrouh

CAIRO – 18 November 2017: Governor of Marsa Matrouh governorate Alaa Abou-Zeid inaugurated on Saturday a new production line in one of the dates factories, at an investment of LE 5 million.

Head of the Trade Ministry's Industry Council for Technology and Innovation Hanan el-Hadary said that the new expansion will add three million tons to the factory’s production capacity per year.

Thirty percent of the produce, she said, will be exported to Germany, Jordan and Indonesia. Hadary added that the Trade Ministry is consistently seeking to support dates producers in Siwa in light of the new strategy launched by the ministry to develop the industry of dates production.

She said that the strategy aims to boost Egypt’s dates exports from 38,000 tons to 120,000 tons during the next five years, adding that the ministry is exerting efforts to boost dates exports, which are currently low in light of Egypt’s large production of dates.

Egypt is the largest country producing dates in the world, with a production of 1.4 million tons a year, representing 17.7 percent of the world’s production. The country exported 102,000 tons of dates at a value of $97 million to 68 countries during the period between 2015 and October 2017, according to Trade Minister Tarek Kabil.

Egypt has been giving the dates industry due concern as it is considered one of the promising sectors that can contribute significantly to economic growth and exports as well as creating jobs.

The third Egyptian Date Palm Festival in Siwa concludes today after running for four days.

The festival aims to shed light on the dates’ sector in Egypt and unify efforts of governmental institutions, research centers and international organizations to promote the sector and find solutions to the problems of producers and manufacturers of dates.

The festival is organized by the Trade Ministry's Industry Council for Technology and Innovation in collaboration with the Khalifa International Prize for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation, under the auspices of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.

Other partners include the United Nations Economic Development Organization (UNIDO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Governorate of Marsa Matrouh.