In Egypt, the cultivation of Cherry tomatoes in tunnel greenhouses and underneath protective shade nets are still a niche market. For the past few years however, importers from The Netherlands are shipping in an increasing amount of Egyptian cherry tomatoes, who apparently achieve better financial results with the Egyptian cherry tomatoes rather than importing from Spain, Morocco or Israel. What is going on?
The cultivation of tomatoes is not something new for Egypt as farmers are growing the crops on a large scale in the open field. About 98% of the total acreage of tomatoes are grown in the open field as a determinate bush tomato crop. As well as this, 1 percent of the farmers are growing indeterminate tomato crops on stakes or with strings. But due to the demand from Western-Europe, larger farmers in Egypt have developed an interest in protected cultivation. According to Ahmet Tunali from vegetable seed breeder Rijk Zwaan, cherry tomato cultivation is a small market with a steady growth.
"Only one percent of the tomato acreage in Egypt is used for medium and low tech protected cultivation," said Tunali, who is an area-manager for the Middle East at Rijk Zwaan, a vegetable breeder with a global presence in many upcoming markets. According to Tunali, Egypt has copied the cherry tomato cultivation methods from Israel. "In Egypt there are many large grape growers, who's business model perfectly fits in with the protected Cherry tomato cultivation; they have a lot of seasonal workers who they now provide jobs to when there is no work to do in the grape season."
Over the last few years, the grape growers have invested in low to medium tech greenhouses. In most cases these are simple plastic tunnel structures or net installations, with sizes from 4 to 10 hectares. The crop is grown directly in the soil, but in some cases perlite or coco peat is being used, as nematodes can be a problem in some parts of the country. According to Tunali, one of the main challenges of the cultivation is the selection of the right breeds. "The export market demands quality fruit with a good shelf life that can compete with produce from Morocco, Spain and Israel. It can not be sensitive to cracking, and has to be tolerant against the cold weather as the cherry tomatoes are grown during the winter. Next to this a resistance against Tomoto Yellow Leaf Curl Virus (TYLCV) is very important in the Middle-East."
One of the varieties that Rijk Zwaan is marketing in Egypt is Moscatel RZ, a cherry tomato on the vine. "Cherry tomatoes are a new crop for Egypt, so we do not yet have many breeds available," Tunali said.
Protected cultivation of cherry tomatoes is also the logical next step after the introduction of greenhouse bell peppers in Egypt a few years ago. The cultivation of bell peppers and mini cucumbers in greenhouses are already established in the country as the mini cucumbers are a large commodity on the local market, and the bell peppers are mainly grown for export. However, the remarkable outcome is that the local market is nowadays also familiar with bell peppers. "Second class produce always ends up on the local market, so consumers in Egypt have also become familiar with new products. Local retailers like Carrefour and Metro became interested and they started experimenting with bell peppers. Nowadays the bell peppers are widely accepted in Egypt, it is a common product, targeted by retailers at the richer middle class of the country. Who knows, the cherry tomatoes will also become a product for the domestic market in a few years."
Tunali believes that the cherry tomato cultivation will continue it's steady growth over the coming years. "The farmers now see that they can achieve better financial results with protected cultivation, they have a cleaner product, need less pesticides and simply get more money per kilo."
