Alamal for Agricultural Crops plans to open a legume factory by the end of the year with investments of EGP 40m to support its export expansion plans. Chairperson of the company, Emad Shehata, said that are currently planning to open a new legume factory with investments of EGP 40m on an area of 27,500 sqm on the Cairo-Alexandria Agricultural Road with a daily production capacity of between 300 and 400 tonnes before the end of this year. He added that the company aims to expand date exports particularly to compensate for the ban on the export of rice, as well as legumes such as sesame, beans and cowpea, through planting with a daily capacity of 500 tonnes. Furthermore, he pointed out that the company aims to grow its export this year by 20% after the opening of a new plant to produce dates in September 2018, with a production capacity of about 250 tonnes and investments of EGP 63m. Shehata stressed the possibility and opportunities for expanding date exports in particular, due to Egypt's substantial production of dates, which reaches 1.2m tonnes, urging the ministry of agriculture to pay attention to the crop and raise farmers' awareness of the medicines and the control of pests in existing crops. The prices of dates witnessed a rise during the last season by between 15 and 20% to EGP 18,000 per tonne. Despite the high price, Egyptian production still cannot compete abroad. Moreover, the chairperson pointed out that there are many countries competing with the Egyptian product in the export of dates, most notably Iraq, and that the company seeks to increase the export of dates in particular to many Arab countries and Asia. Plus, Shehata added that the new plant of dates will increase the company's exports from 9,800 tonnes to about 16,000 tonnes by the end of this year and the company targets exports of 60,000 tonnes of legumes. Additionally, Shehata stressed the importance of participating in foreign exhibitions as a means of gathering a large number of companies from different countries, which contributes to the promotion of the Egyptian product and opens new markets in many countries. He also highlighted the importance of supporting these exhibitions especially for small exporters. What's more, he added that the company aims to expand its exports to the markets of Europe and America, where it has already registered there, alongside current markets. Alamal for Agricultural Crops was established in 1965 to trade agricultural crops. It is a company specialised in manufacturing and processing all agricultural crops and exporting them, as well as importing some agricultural crops needed by the Egyptian market from some Arab and foreign countries.
