Tameem El-Dawy, Deputy Executive Director at the Egyptian Food Export Council (FEC), has said that the country’s food industry sector exports to Germany recorded about $83m between January and November 2020.
This compared to the $73m recorded during the same period of 2019, reflecting a growth of 13%.
In a virtual seminar, on Wednesday, held to review opportunities for developing Egyptian food exports to Germany, El-Dawy said that the German market is one of the largest European Union (EU) countries importing Egyptian food products.
In addition, Germany is the third largest importer in all commodity sectors in the world, with a value of $1.236trn. The German market represented 6.5% of the world’s total imports in 2019, and its total imports from food industries reached $70bn, he added.
El-Dawy also said that the value of the sector’s exports to the EU witnessed a growth of 6% during the first 11 months of 2020. In this time period, it recorded $448m compared to $424m in the same period of 2019.
There has been a remarkable increase in Egypt’s exports of food industries to Germany in the past four years, as it grew by 15% in 2017 to reach $58m. This was followed by a further rise of 23% in 2018 to record $72m, and 7% in 2019 to reach $77m, El-Dawy said.
“Despite the extremely complex and difficult circumstances the world went through as a result of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020, the value of Egyptian food industries exports experienced an 8% growth during 11 months of 2020 compared to their full value in 2019,” he noted, “Moreover, 10 food products represent about 90% of the total Egyptian food exports to the German market, with a value of $73.9m in the first 11 months of 2020, foremost of which are frozen strawberries.”
The German market absorbs processed agricultural food products, whether frozen or dried vegetables and fruits, he explained.
El-Dawy added that there are food products in German import items that have an alternative in Egyptian export products with a value worth $32m in 2019.
