White Land for Food Industries seeks to increase its production capacity by 82% before the end of the year, through injecting investments of about EGP 22m since the beginning of 2017. The chairperson and managing director of White Land, Said El-Mashad, said that his company seeks to increase its annual sales of cheese through expanding in local and foreign markets. He pointed out that the company has invested about EGP 22m this year to increase its production capacity by 82%, and rise exports to 35% of the total annual sales, compared to only 25% currently. He added that the company's new plan aims to increase its total annual sales to EGP 340m in 2017 compared to EGP 160m last year. El-Mashad further added that the new investments will bring new machinery to increase the company's production capacity to 31,000 tonnes annually compared to 17,000 tonnes in 2016. He noted that the company opened two production lines in the first half (H1) of this year and the third line is expected to launch in the last quarter of 2017. El-Mashad said that the company's investments did not exceed EGP 15m last year, and they were used to purchase a new 80 gm machine, so as to diversify the company's production of all sizes to suit the tastes of local and foreign customers. White Land exports its production to about 12 Arab countries, mainly to Iraq by about 22%, followed by Kuwait, Lebanon, and Jordan. El-Mashad said that his company currently targets African markets because they offer more advantages compared to European markets in terms of competition and prices. The company will focus on the European markets in 2019, he added. El-Mashad stressed that the participation in external exhibitions helps exporters to increase their production efficiency, and gain good global reputation, adding that the state support matters most. The African markets do not receive the required interest from Egyptian companies, despite being neighboring markets, however, the government has not overcome the logistical obstacles in the continent yet. El-Mashad added that Egypt should study the African markets well to identify the required products and trade protocols to be signed.
