Achievements of Egyptian poultry sector exceed expectations: Businessman Ayman Al-Gamil

CAIRO - 4 October 2020: The achievements of the Egyptian pourtlry sector in recent years exceeded all the expectations, Businessman Ayman Al-Gamil said Sunday.

“After losing its great capabilities due to the bird flu crisis in 2006, the sector was able to recover from the effects of that fatal crisis, returning to self-sufficiency and ending the blockade represented by the suspension of exports for 14 years, after the sector obtained an important international certificate, which opens the door for export and attracting more investments,” he clarified.

Al-Gamil added that the state has provided many measures in support of agricultural investments in general, and investments of pourtly, livestock and fodder in particular, and thanks to this official vision and the accompanying policies and implementation moves, the economic sector’s capacity has jumped to more than LE 90 billion, providing 3 million job opportunities. 

“We achieved self-sufficiency with more than 1.4 billion chickens and 13 billion table eggs annually, and the matter developed into having a large surplus for export, which became possible after the International Organization for Animal Health declared Egypt complete freedom from bird flu, in a way that opens the door to penetrate the surrounding markets in a competitive environment,” the businessman added.

He stated that the Egyptian product comes in a high quality compared to pourtly imported from Brazil and some Asian and Latin American countries.

Al-Gamil affirmed that the state’s bet on the sector reflects a comprehensive economic and development aspiration to enhance production capabilities, increase investment, and control product prices in a manner that achieves food security. 

“It is a comprehensive vision that the Ministry of Agriculture and the concerned agencies implement in terms of livestock and pourtly and related activities.”

He continued that the government has worked to facilitate procedures and attract more new investments, through an innovative system of operational tools, the most important of which is facilitating the granting of licenses, opening the door for progress through the WhatsApp application, counting and registering farms and coding them, and completing about 28,000 animal farms and 25,000 pourtly farms, increasing meat production and controlling prices without increasing for more than two years, achieving self-sufficiency in milk by about 7 million tons, increasing fish production to nearly two million tons, and stimulating exports of all agricultural sectors and related industries of feed and food processing, which increased the sector's ability to grow and add more productive capacities, and increased investment competitiveness of other sectors in the market. “Even with the surrounding regional markets, all of which are things that push in the direction of growth and attract new investment flows from home and abroad. “

Al-Gamil emphasized the importance of concerting all official and societal efforts to maintain and develop this state of activity, given the importance of agricultural fields for investment, development, job generation and achieving food security and price stability.

He pointed out that the companies operating in the sectors of agriculture, pourtly, livestock and agro-industrialization now have broad capabilities and wide and extended experiences, and benefit from the state's increasing interest in productive capacities, the quality of this production, its quality and its ability to compete regionally and globally, which heralds the continued state of steady growth and the addition of more new projects. 

This comes in light of planning 9 investment areas for pourtly at about LE 9 billion, directing nearly LE 3 billion for the veal project, expanding land reclamation and agricultural processing, and exporting about one million tons of feed with the development of the feed sector and its new licenses, which increases expectations of expanding existing activities to take advantage of current and future opportunities, with the possibility of receiving new qualitative investments to take advantage of the potential of the sector and the capabilities and infrastructure provided by the state in support of the growth of agriculture, production, agricultural industrialization and other related fields, according to Al-Gamil.