With an early entry of Egyptian grapes on the market, exporters are delighted to see a good business opportunity, especially in Europe, and hope to recover after a difficult season last year. Mahdi Salem, technical director of Sherouk Land for Agricultural Development, comments on the situation.
Mahdi explains, "This year's production is lower than last year, but it's important to point out that last year's production was excessive and led to poor prices. So the drop this year is not necessarily negative. The drop in production is also due to climatic reasons, temperature fluctuations during the flowering phase have caused a drop in yield."
"But due to the weather conditions too, we were able to harvest earlier this year and enter the market at an opportune moment," continues Mahdi.
"The quality this year is very good, due to the improvement of the weather conditions before the harvest. The difference between the day and night temperatures led to a natural and significant increase in the sizes and quality," adds the grower.
As for demand, "It is excellent. We work well with Germany, the Netherlands, England, as well as China. We have some customers in Southeast Asia and Russia. The English market is still a bit slow, and we're waiting to see how it will improve."
Competition in the grape market is mainly between Egypt, Spain, India, and Chile, according to the producer. The early harvest will enable Egypt to export to Europe before the start of the Spanish season, while Chile and India are at the end of their campaign.
"This is a golden opportunity. I can say, and it's well known, that Egyptian grapes are of a higher quality than Indian ones, and this allows us to get better prices," says the producer. He concludes: "We're entering the market with a fresh product, while India and Chile are exporting their latest shipments. This will lead to Egyptian grapes chasing competition out of the European market."
