The Egyptian garlic season is looking quite positive, with high volumes and good quality, says Ahmed Adel, CEO of Global Veg Egy: "We're really happy with our garlic harvest this season. The garlic is healthy and has the correct sizes, which are actually larger than in earlier seasons, thanks to the good weather and our experienced growers. Looking at the total volumes, Egypt has about 1.5 to 2X the production of last year. Production increased due to the very strong demand for green and dry garlic last year. This was true for both export and the local market, causing prices to increase to a level we hadn't seen before. Demand was so high that the production last year was insufficient to cover the need for the product."
Despite losing a big client, demand has been so strong that this loss is covered by other clients, Adel explains. "Unfortunately, one of our biggest customers, who supplies a big retailer in Germany, had a program with Argentinian exporters this year, but thankfully we had big demand from other customers, who will be able to absorb the gap this client left behind. As production has increased significantly, we're able to cover the strong demand for green garlic. In the coming days, we'll start to store our garlic, but price levels are close to last season, maybe slightly cheaper even."
The season will last for a few weeks, but there is even hope to stretch it to the end of April: "There's still a challenge ahead of us, as we try to extend our green garlic season until the end of April, by storing raw materials, while the dry garlic season would have already started. I hope we will be able to maintain the same quality that we currently offer to our customers, as we don't care about exported volumes as much as we do about the quality we can offer. Of course, we want to earn money, but not at the cost of quality, so we only accept orders that we know we can fulfill with our standards in mind. We're also very proud to have received the spring add on for our Global Gap certificate this year, for which we've worked very hard to achieve it," Adel concludes.
For more information:
Ahmed Adel
Global Veg Egy
Tel: +20 112 668 44 94
Email: Sales@globalvegy.com
www.globalvegy.com