Sama Grain company, operating in the field of exporting agriculture crops, is intending to establish a factory of juice concentrates and to operate the line of packaging citrus fruits to export them to east Asia and Russia. In an interview with Al-Borsa newspaper, the chairperson of the company, Mohamed Hassan, said that his company has allocated about EGP 35min initial costs to establish the factory of the juice concentrates, which will begin operations by 2019. He added that the company is about to complete all the studies of the project and is getting ready to look into offers made by Turkish companies that want to install production machines in the factory. Hassan also explained that the company is studying the markets to see how they would receive the juice concentrates product, and the company is looking to choose between the markets of east Asia and Russia. Moreover, the company is getting ready to launch a packaging line to export citrus fruits to Russia and east Asia in mid-January 2017 with a capacity of 20,000 tonnes of oranges per season. Hassan said that the packaging station project is located on an area of 10,000 sqm, with an investment cost of EGP 12m. Sama Grain is targeting to increase the size of annual exports to $5m in the next two years; the annual size of the company's exports is currently $3m. The company exports many agriculture crops, including pomegranates, citrus fruits, and grapes to Russia, China, Singapore, and Malaysia, in addition to Europe (Germany, Holland, and Poland). According to Hassan, the company is seeking to enter new markets, including the Balkans, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, in addition to the United States and Canada, in spite of the health requirements these countries insist Egyptian products meet. He said that these requirements include measuring the percentage of the pesticide residue in the product, as well as the ways it is stored and transported. Hassan noted that the Egyptian agriculture product is suffering from the lack of a supervisory entity to guarantee that all products are of high quality. It is also facing several problems, he continued, mainly the fruit fly and the high percentage of pesticide residues. Hassan said that the Russian market is the market consuming most of the Egyptian agriculture products and crops; however, Russia also delays the payments of the financial dues. He suggested activating the free trade initiative and exempting the Egyptian product from customs, like in some other countries, giving Turkey as an example, which would alleviate the burdens of the financial dues and speed up their payments. Hassan noted that the companies operating in the field of exporting agriculture crops are facing many problems and obstacles, mainly the transport crisis due to the irregular shipping lines, demanding to launch a green passageway between Egypt and Russia to speed up the passage of the agriculture products and avoid spoiling them during the long hours of transportation. The Russian market obtained approximately 20% of the size of the Egyptian citrus fruits exports during the 2013-2014 season, valued at 230,000 tonnes of oranges, mandarins, lemon, and grapefruit.
