Egypt Kuwait Holding cultivates forest for wood factory

CAIRO - 31 October 2018: Chairman and CEO of Egypt Kuwait Holding Company Moataz Al Alfi told press on Wednesday that the corporation will establish a wood factory worth LE 3 billion ($168,5 million) in Minya governorate and that the value of the annual production will be $50 million.

The main feature of the project is the use of trees planted over 6,000 feddans and irrigated by treated wastewater. The factory is expected to start operation in a year and a half. Banks will provide funding worth LE1 billion ($56 million).

The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) released a report last year indicating that Egypt’s imports of wood recorded LE 14.2 billion ($798 million) in 2016. The amount of wood imported between 2005 and 2015 is 12,300 tons.

The current area of cultivated forests in Egypt is 21,250 feddans having an estimated wood production of 8.3 million tons when the trees are cut at the age of 15. Each forest can create 213 job opportunities.

The country has the capacity to cultivate 328,300 feddans in forests as it produces 3.6 billion cubic meters of wastewater. Working towards that goal, the government has already allocated 111,7000 feddans for cultivating forests.

The aforementioned data are included in a master’s degree titled “The Production Economics and the Costs of Forests Cultivation in Egypt Using Treated Sewage Water” and reported by Al Ahram Agriculture.

Al Alfy also said the corporate will operate in a logistic zone in Beheira and that the equipment, including refrigerators, are being installed.

The prospective logistic zone in Beheira is worth LE5 billion. It will be finished in two years, creating 17,000 jobs and servicing around 10 million. The zone established over 96 feddans is expected to attract LE 8 billion in investments.

The economic activities will include warehousing, refrigeration, sorting, packaging, wholesaling, and outlets.

Al Alfy revealed that the total value of the company’s investments in Egypt is $2.5 billion, and that Kuwaiti investors are very optimistic about the Egyptian market. The corporation operates in the sectors of petrochemicals, fertilizers, gas distribution networks, tankers operation, cement production, telecommunications, infrastructure, cooling systems and insurance.