Nestlé-Egypt expects its total sales in the infant and child nutrition department to reach EGP 500m in Egypt and Libya by the end of the current year.
Rani Saab, executive director of the infant and child nutrition department in North Africa said that exporting to Libya accounts for 30% of total sales.
Nestle International announced early this year investing EGP 1bn in Egypt over the coming five years across different sectors.
Saab noted that Nestle plans to launch new products by the end of this year, declining to disclose the names of the products before they were officially launched.
Nestlé’s production of children nutrition includes 50 products, he added, noting that the Egyptian market is considered a big consumption market for the company. He added that the company aims to begin exporting to the Middle East said the company aims to export to the Middle East and the Arab region during the fourth quarter of this year.
He stressed the importance of the measures and economic reforms adopted by the Egyptian government during the recent period, despite the negative impact on the company’s products, as the company does not manufacture of all the products locally and imports part of the raw materials, which was hit negatively by the float of the pound.
He added that despite the difficult decisions and actions taken by the government, they were necessary to reform the Egyptian economy, which contributes to attracting Arab and foreign investments to the Egyptian market.
He pointed out that the food industry is one of the sectors most affected by high production costs and all companies had no other choice but to raise the prices of their products to cope with the changes in the local market.
He explained that the company has raised prices by an average of 20% even though the cost of production hiked by over 100%, but the low purchasing power of citizens forced the company to bear some of the price.
In a related context, Saab pointed out that the decision to liberalize the exchange rate was necessary and considered a bold step despite its difficult effects on the industrial sector and society as a whole.
Nestlé’s global sales volume is around CHF 89bn. The company has 418 factories in 86 countries around the world, next to selling 1 billion products per day. The company owns 10 factories in the Arab region, including two factories in Egypt in the 6th of October City to produce three products; Maggi, Cerelac, and Nesquik, as well as repackaging of Nido and Nescafe products. The second factory in Benha to produce bottled mineral water water Nestle Pure Life and Baraka.
