Egypt set priorities for a sustainable Date palm sector under the OCOP initiative
Cairo, Egypt – Representatives from government, academia, development organizations, researchers, traders, and exporters gathered in Cairo on 20 December to discuss progress and priorities for the date palm sector in Egypt. The National Annual Meeting on the implementation of the One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) Initiative in Egypt, was organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MoALR).
The meeting focused on assessing progress made in Egypt’s date palm sector, with discussions cantering around challenges, opportunities, and the formulation of an action plan for 2024-25 under the OCOP initiative. Participants exchanged innovative approaches for plant production and success stories from farmers benefiting from the OCOP project were shared, injecting renewed hope into the date palm sector.
Under the OCOP global project “Innovative approaches for better plant production” funded through the FAO Flexible Voluntary Contribution (FVC), a team of OCOP experts conducted an extensive value chain analysis of the date palm through consultation with governmental officials, farmers, brokers, and exporters in the date palm growing districts to identify the challenges and opportunities in the sector. It includes a detailed analysis of the economic, social and environmental impacts of the date value chain in Egypt. This analysis identified several areas for improvement.
Updated strategy for the date palm sector in Egypt 2024-2029 is developed.
The team also reviewed the updated strategy for the date palm sector in Egypt 2024-2029, which aims to achieve a comprehensive renaissance of the sector based on the rapid and sustainable development of systems for producing, assembling, packing, manufacturing and exporting dates and making use of date palm waste, which will benefit the state’s general budget and investors, manufacturers and traders, especially small farmers and the most needy groups, improving the environment and climate and switching to green production.
Additionally, the team analyzed the current situation, and reviewed the action plan that included the necessity of establishing Egyptian Dates Network. The work plan also discussed the date production services, the palm protection, date harvest and post-harvest practices, the climate smart Production, in addition to developing and disseminating the enabling elements for green development in the date processing and manufacturing sector.
Renewed hope for the date palm sector
Egypt occupies the first place as the country that produces the most dates in the world. Egypt annually produces about 1.8 million tons, equivalent to 19 % of global production, and 24 % of Arab production.
The number of palm trees in Egypt exceeds 16 million, in addition to recent projects, in light of the political leadership’s interest in this promising sector.
Recent years have witnessed a significant expansion in palm cultivation of varieties with a high market value. 5 million palm trees of various varieties are being planted (2017-2025) for both the local market and for export.
142 factories and packing stations are operating in the field of manufacturing and packing dates.
Mr. Ezz El-Din Jadallah Hussein, Director of the Central Palm Research Laboratory, MoALR, highlighted the importance of the OCOP initiative and stressed the huge potential of the date palm sector. “Egypt has chosen the date palm as a national fruit for promoting sustainable value chains. This choice is based on the fact that today Egypt ranks 1st in the world in date production, with opportunities to increase export rates of dates produced in Egypt to $250 million annually, and to increase local consumption to one million tons annually, at a rate of increase of 10% annually, which means there is a great potential for further promotion of this product,” he said. Mr. Mohamed Yacoub, Assistant FAO Representative in Egypt, highlighted the government’s sincere commitment to the successful implementation of the initiative in the country. “To enhance the impact of the OCOP implementation in Egypt, we need collective efforts to improve quality, logistics capabilities, and standardization of the product,” he said.
Way forward
Egypt's active participation in OCOP reflects its commitment to promoting date palm as its special agricultural product. It is expected that Egypt, as OCOP demonstrating country from the Near East and North Africa region will serve as a model for the other countries in the region that are looking to advance their SAP’s value chains and foster sustainable agricultural development.