With the Navel season over, Agro Alex Group has already made a start to the Valencia orange campaign. “We are feeling optimistic about this season; even though the Valencia crop is lower than last year’s, we are prepared to increase our exported quantities significantly in order to satisfy our growing customer demand,” says Eng. Khaled Elbessoumy, Chairman of Agro Alex Group. He assures that this good demand is due to the climate change, which led to a shortage in quantities.
Furthermore, Agro Alex Group will kick the potato season off in the first week of February. “As opposed to the very bad season experienced by Egypt last year, this year there is a big shortage in the harvest,” states Elbessoumy. In fact, there is a big demand due to a shortage in countries that grow and export potatoes. In this context, Agro Alex Group has increased its potato production in order to meet its clients’ needs in Russia, the Gulf countries and Greece. Besides the Spunta, Mondial and industrial potato varieties, Agro Alex Group is growing salad varieties for export to Europe.
“It is also worth noting that the huge quantities of potatoes harvested last year caused the selling price of potatoes to go down significantly. The big loss for all growers resulted in a lack of appetite for growing potatoes this year,” explains the Chairman of Agro Alex Group
As for onions, Elbessoumy says that there is a very big demand for Egyptian onions from the Russian market due to the suspension of Turkey's exports to Russia, although red onions are also highly demanded by the European market due to the high quality of the product this year and the development of the packing system.
He also added that the number of onion growers has not increased this year. “Our company is currently working on a survey to prepare high quality imported onion seeds and good fertilizers to be able to increase the quantities of onions and boost the number of onion growers in Egypt by using the new seeds.”
In any case, climate change in the past few years, and especially this year, has resulted in a shortage of onions which has pushed prices up; also, the big demand from the Russian and Ukrainian markets is a big factor. “Agro Alex Group is one of the largest onions exporters in Egypt, exporting golden onions to Russia and the Gulf countries and red onions to the Netherlands and the UK.”
Overall, Agro Alex Group’s GLOBALG.A.P, BRC and HACCP certified quality standards which are effectively implemented within its supply chain have allowed it to penetrate many worldwide markets and build an excellent reputation. AAG was able to enter the highly quality oriented Chinese market due to these quality standards, as well as the highly advanced pre-cooling storage facilities at its packing houses’ complex.
“We have a quality team that has implemented a full quality management system on the entire supply chain, including a traceability system, in order to closely monitor the quality of our product and make sure it meets the highest European quality standards which are required by our clients."
Agro Alex Group is exhibiting at Fruit Logistica Berlin 2016 during the period of 3-5 February. The stand location is in the Egyptian Pavilion Hall 2.1 Stand A-08 where all members of the senior management will be present in order to meet with existing and new clients.
