The large size of the Egyptian population, together with the search for opportunities to strengthen the agricultural sector in certain regions of the country, are motivating the Egyptian government to seek profitable alternatives to produce food and supply the population of the entire country.
As recalled by Tecnova in a statement in March this year, an Egyptian delegation visited Tecnova's facilities in Almeria, and also the Netherlands, in order to learn about the different technologies that both agricultural models feature and to gain knowledge for the promotion of the agricultural sector through the development of greenhouses capable of supplying the Egyptian domestic market.
The Tecnova Technology Centre presented the high productivity greenhouse model, for temperate climates, developed by the centre. The Egyptian delegation "highly appreciated" the fact that Tecnova is a private technological centre made up of companies that bring together the necessary technology to develop this type of farming.
Subsequently, Tecnova technicians visited the study area in Egypt to analyse its climate and soil conditions and offer a "turnkey" project with the Almeria companies involved, providing "the best quality and technologies."
In August, the Minister of Agriculture of Egypt, Essam Osman Fayed, together with a delegation of eleven people, visited Tecnova in order to finalise the details of the project.
Lastly, in the first half of September, the president of Tecnova, Ángel Barranco, accompanied by the technical team, travelled to the country to sign the contract with the Government of Egypt and start the project for the construction of high-tech greenhouse structures for temperate climates in the north of the country.
In parallel, the Egyptian government has signed a similar agreement with the Netherlands. The aim is to compare both technologies and see which one is most suitable to produce in Egypt "under the criteria of productivity and profitability."
For Tecnova, this is a "very important" challenge, since it entails "defending Spanish technology against the Dutch model." Both pilot greenhouses are planned to be opened by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in the first quarter of 2017.
This project has been carried out within the framework of the strategic lines of international work in which Tecnova started working in the first half of 2015 in order to position itself "as a world-renowned technology centre" in the field of the development of technologies for high-productivity agriculture in temperate climates.