Egyptian orange: boom continuing!

  • Published on 9/03/2018 - Published by Market News Service / FruiTrop
  • FruiTrop n°254 , Page From 6 to 6
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The orange cultivation area is continuing to expand at a frenetic rate.

According to the USDA, surfaces areas increased by nearly 40 % over the past decade, to in excess of 150 000 ha in 2017-18 (of which more than 10 000 ha planted in the past two seasons). While these figures are probably very rough due to lack of official surveys, this strong growth trend is confirmed by the professionals. Demand on the local market remains very high: despite a marked increase in retail prices due to the resumption of inflation, the orange remains the most attractive fruit (half the price of the banana). Furthermore, the international market is increasingly keen on purchasing. Competitiveness, already very strong because of the low labour and water costs, increased with the devaluation in November 2016 (Egyptian pound/USD exchange rate going from 1 to 8.90 to 1 to 17.60 after one year). Furthermore, the quality level is more convincing thanks to the efforts made by the Ministry of Agriculture to disseminate good agricultural practices, while a new system aimed at providing better guarantees in terms of food safety should be put in place in 2018-19. Exports exceeded 1.5 million tonnes in 2016-17. The EU-28 is now among the main customers (more than 280 000 t imported in 2016-17 according to Eurostat) alongside Russia and Saudi Arabia, with shipments to China tending to make strong progress (100 000 t in 2016-17).

Sources: USDA, Eurostat

orange - egypt - exports
orange - egypt - exports

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