The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Moldova plans a working visit of a government delegation to Egypt in February to hold consultations on an interstate free trade agreement with the ministries and departments of Egypt. The Moldovan Ministry of Economy is currently finalizing the draft document. If it is coordinated quickly and successfully with the Egyptian party, the agreement may be concluded as early as the spring of 2022.

Representatives of organizations of producers and exporters of fruit products claim that they have previously submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAIA) their proposals for cooperation on trade in agri-food products with Egypt. In their opinion, a better option would be to sign not a comprehensive free trade agreement between states, but an agreement on commercial preferences for a list of products.

While studying this issue with Middle Eastern trading partners (owners of enterprises in Moldova exporting fruits to the UAE and North Africa), experts from fruit growing associations concluded that Moldovan apples, table grapes and dried plums may be the most demanded on the Egyptian market. Citrus and exotic fruits, as well as some types of vegetables from Egypt could be supplied to the Moldovan market.

Traders who plan to export apples to Egypt in the near future note that these are most likely to be average-quality apples exported to Cairo – in particular, apples with a diameter of 65-70 mm, red and mostly sweet varieties (although sweet and sour “Idared” is not rejected right away). Given the simpler and faster transport logistics and less stringent product quality requirements, Moldovan exporters regard the Egyptian market as more accessible than the markets of the Middle East. In their opinion, the main deterrent for the active supply of Moldovan fruits to Egypt is the high import duty (about $200/tonne).

In addition, some participants in the Moldovan agri-food market claim that Turkish business is resisting the establishment of preferential trade between Moldova and Egypt. Turkey benefits from the free trade agreement with Moldova – Turkish citrus fruits and vegetables dominate the Moldovan market during certain periods of the marketing year. Also, suppliers of Turkish apples are actively increasing their presence in the Egyptian fruit market.

Сообщение Moldovan government plans to sign an agreement on preferential fruit exports with Egypt появились сначала на EastFruit.

EastFruit analysts note a positive trend in Ukraine’s work on improving access to the leading markets for fruit and vegetables.

Given the crisis on the apple market in Europe this season described in detail in the article #Freshapplecrisis it is especially relevant for Ukrainian growers who work to improve access to the Egyptian apple market.

“Poland exports to Egypt about 100 thousand tonnes of fresh apples per season, and Ukraine does not supply a single tonne, despite the logistics for exporting apples to Egypt from Ukraine being better than that of Poland. The main reason is that Poland enjoys the advantages of duty-free trade with Egypt, and Ukrainian suppliers would have to pay import duties, which makes their apples uncompetitive in this market.” explains Andriy Yarmak, economist at the Investment Centre of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“If Ukraine had the duty-free access to the Egyptian market like Poland, according to my estimates, it could export up to 10 thousand tonnes of apples there, helping to mitigate the crisis on the domestic apple market. In addition, Egypt is one of the world’s largest importers of apples with the ongoing upward trend, which makes it very promising for Ukrainian farmers. Since Ukraine imports quite large volumes of citrus fruits from Egypt, apples would be a good way to optimize logistics for reloading. It is incredibly important now, and it would also reduce both the cost of importing citrus fruits and the cost of logistics for exporting apples.” the FAO expert notes.

During the 17^th international conference “Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2021. New investment opportunities” held in Kyiv on 2-3 December 2021, Vladyslava Magaletska, head of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection, talked to the Ukrainian growers and representatives of the Ukrainian Horticultural Association. Just a few days later, on 16 December, Vladyslava Magaletska reported on fruitful negotiations with the Egyptian party.

“I continue to work in Egypt as part of our delegation. I will immediately dwell on the main issues that can intensify trade and economic relations between the two countries,” she wrote on her Facebook page. Among the key points of the negotiations was the “Opening of the Egyptian market for Ukrainian apples. Today our apples are subject to additional duties, and as a result, they lose in price to Polish ones. We must resolve the situation and establish equal conditions.” In addition to apples, they also discussed the opening of the market for blueberries and cherries.

Ms. Magaletska also reported on the negotiations with the Egyptian colleagues responsible for phytosanitary and veterinary areas of cooperation: the Head of the Central Plant Quarantine Administration Ph.D. Ahmed Kamal El-attar and the Head of the General Veterinary Service of Egypt Dr. Abdelhakim Mahmooud Mohammed and other officials.

“Egypt is a very interesting country for Ukrainian growers. It is a gateway to Africa and a country of enormous potential and a population of 100 million. Therefore, we will work on expanding our cooperation and creating new opportunities for producers,” Vladyslava Magaletska said.

Let’s hope that duties on Ukrainian apples will be canceled before the end of the 2021/22 season. Apple prices on the Ukrainian market are now about 2 times lower than last year, affecting investments in horticulture, especially in the context of rising costs on fertilizers, plant protection products and other cost elements.

In addition to the State Service on Food Safety and Consumer Protection, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economy, which are removing technical obstacles to trade, have noticeably intensified their efforts to improve access to new sales markets. They also urge industry associations to more actively engage in the work and help officials with the search for the most relevant directions for export development.

The geography of Ukrainian apple exports is constantly expanding. In particular, Ukrainian apples have recently become a trend in the markets of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Сообщение Ukraine negotiates duty-free apple exports to Egypt to compete with Poland появились сначала на EastFruit.

EastFruit analysts predict that Russia may sharply increase the volume of imports of potatoes from Egypt in the 2020/21 season. With continued growth in domestic prices and aggravating problems with the quality of Russian tubers in potato warehouses, reports began this week about the arrival of the first bulk shipments of potatoes from Egypt to ports in the southern regions of Russia. Thus, the active import of Egyptian potatoes to Russia this year began about two weeks earlier than last season.

Potatoes from Egypt are currently offered in the southern ports of the country at 40-44 rubles/kg ($0.54-0.60/kg) while a year earlier prices for the first batches of this product did not exceed 32 rubles/kg ($0.40/kg). Local potatoes are becoming more expensive in Russia for the second week in a row. Over the year, potatoes in Russia have risen in price two and a half times and now Russian potato growers sell potatoes of the 2020 harvest from storage at 20-30 rubles/kg ($0.27-0.41/kg).

“The current potato season has returned the development of the situation in the Russian market to its typical course after the rather unexpected transformation of Russia into a net exporter of potatoes in the 2019/20 season,” comments Evgeny Kuzin, the head of international projects at Fruit-Inform.com. “Last season (June 2019 – May 2020), Russia was able to significantly increase its export of potatoes relying on the rush demand both from the traditional markets of the Caucasus and Central Asia and from new directions such as Moldova and Ukraine. Now, the situation has changed quite significantly. Wholesale buyers often report a shortage of high-quality products and prices for Russian potatoes have grown significantly and continue to rise, which is what importers are trying to take advantage of.”

According to EastFruit, the volume of potato imports to Russia amounted to only 310,000 tons in the 2019/20 season (June-May) while Russian potato growers were able to deliver 411,000 tons of their products abroad. Approximately 100,000-110,000 tons of official exports were supplied to the uncontrolled territories of Ukraine. Thus, after deducting these supplies, Russia exported approximately the same volume of potatoes as it imported in the previous season, about 300,000-310,000 tons. Previously, exports of potatoes from Russia never exceeded 100,000-110,000 tons.

Read also: Potatoes are getting pricier by the day in Russia

Russia exports ordinary ware potatoes while imports are based on products offered on the Russian market as early or young potatoes supplied to the country mainly from February to June. These imported potatoes have thick skin and almost no difference from the usual commercial ones. Its main advantage is its high-quality parameters due to deliveries immediately after harvesting in Egypt, Pakistan, and Iran. The main supplier of potatoes to Russia is Egypt, which provided about two-thirds of the total volume of Russian imports in the 2019/20 season. The rest of the volume of Russian imports was from Iran, Pakistan, and China. Deliveries from China were relevant mainly for the Asian regions of the Russian Federation.

“At the beginning of the current season, it became obvious that the export breakthrough of Russian potatoes was rather an exception to the rule and further development of the situation only confirmed such forecasts,” says Evgeny Kuzin. “In terms of exports, Russian suppliers lost the markets of Ukraine and Moldova in the fall of 2020 and only the traditional directions of supplies to Central Asia remained where prices rose sharply. Problems with product quality within the country have created good prospects for an early start of import supplies of potatoes to Russia,” adds the expert.

Back in 2019, EastFruit cautioned about the likelihood of a decrease in production volumes and the reasons for such possible changes in our article, “The Vegetable Growing Crisis in Russia.” Here, we discussed why the profitability of growing potatoes and vegetables is falling and what can be done in this situation by vegetable growers and potato growers.

According to the EastFruit price monitoring data today, Russian potatoes continue to be present in the countries of Central Asia as prices there have really grown significantly recently. In Tajikistan last week, wholesale prices for potatoes reached $0.37/kg and in Uzbekistan, they could even reach $0.46/kg. Price levels on the Moldovan and Ukrainian markets are now even lower than in Russia at an average of $0.23/kg and $0.25/kg respectively.

“Naturally, the main beneficiary of the current growth in prices for Russian potatoes will be Egypt, which in the past few seasons has been the leading exporter of these products to the Russian market. Nevertheless, other suppliers may have certain prospects. However, Uzbekistan and other suppliers from Central Asian countries, which have recently been developing the direction of supplying early potatoes to Russia, may have domestic prices too high to ensure exports this year. In addition, Russian producers of early potatoes this spring can make good money if they increase the area under potatoes right now, given the good prospects for growth in prices for them until May-June,” sums up Evgeny Kuzin.

Сообщение Russia may sharply increase potato imports from Egypt this season появились сначала на EastFruit.