The Egyptian Minister of Agriculture praises the UAE’s role in promoting the date industry and expanding its cultivation in Egypt
Cairo, February 9 / WAM / His Excellency Alaa Farouk, Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation of the Arab Republic of Egypt, confirmed that the UAE has contributed to supporting Egypt in developing the date sector, expanding the cultivation of high-value varieties, enhancing manufacturing and refrigeration capabilities, and establishing specialized industrial complexes for export.
During the opening of the activities of the sixth edition of the Cairo Dates Festival at the Agricultural Museum in Dokki, with the participation of more than 60 exhibitors from various governorates and a number of participants from Arab countries who produce dates and various natural products, His Excellency said that the UAE helped rehabilitate and renovate the Al-Kharga date complex in the New Valley at a cost of about 17 million Egyptian pounds, in addition to establishing a complex of date cooling units in the Bahariya Oasis with a capacity of 4,000 tons, which contributed to raising production efficiency.
The Egyptian Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation pointed out that the UAE contributed during previous years to rehabilitating the date factory in Siwa Oasis at a cost of about 14 million pounds. It also contributed to the ongoing expansion to establish specialized industrial complexes for dates in a number of regions, including Sadat City, Burj Al Arab, the 10th of Ramadan, and the 6th of October, in order to improve the post-harvest system by developing sorting, grading, and packaging techniques, and raising the quality of the final product in accordance with international standards.
His Excellency stressed that these efforts contributed to Egypt being at the forefront of countries producing dates with a percentage of up to 19 percent of global production and an annual production of approximately two million tons, as Egypt possesses more than 24 million palm trees, in addition to plans to expand the cultivation of high-value export varieties.
His Excellency explained that in the field of manufacturing and exporting, there are more than 200 establishments of date packing and packaging factories and centers, many of which were developed with government and private support, pointing out that Egypt’s exports of dates witnessed a noticeable increase as a result of improved quality and the success of efforts to open new markets in Europe, Asia and Africa.
He called on the research centers affiliated with the Ministry, the colleges of agriculture, and the National Research Center for more innovation to develop disease-resistant varieties and adopt smart agriculture techniques to meet the challenges facing the sector, whether related to climate change or the spread of pests.
-secret-.
- For more: Follow Khaleejion 24 Arabic, Khaleejion 24 English, Khaleejion 24 Live, and for social media follow us on Facebook and Twitter
