Egyptian Food Export Council (FEC) said that the country's food industries exports to Germany recorded about $83m between January and November 2020 growing by 13 percent, according to its Deputy Executive Director, Tameem El-Dawy. This compared to the $73m recorded during the same period of 2019, he added
In a virtual seminar, 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 percent of the world's total imports in 2019, and its total imports of 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 percent 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 percent in 2017 to reach $58m. This was followed by a further rise of 23 percent in 2018 to record $72m, and 7 percent 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 percent 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." 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.
