Distribution of certificates during the training.

3 December 2017, Cairo, Egypt – Under the framework of the Development of Palm Dates Strategy in Egypt, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) organized a training of trainers (ToT) program for agricultural engineers to carry out a series of technical training courses, with the objective of applying good agricultural practices to produce, assemble and manufacture dates.

The program was in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Central Lab of Palm.

The ToT program aims at training 20 agricultural specialists from Siwa Oasis, Bahariya Oasis and El Dakhla and El Kharga Oases in the New Valley governorate, where each specialist will train 100 farmers bringing the total number of trainees in this program to 2,000 farmers in the selected locations. This is in addition to the 1,500 farmers and agricultural specialists from the date palm sector who were trained in previous programs.

The program was held in the presence of Hussein Gadain, FAO representative in Egypt, Mohamed Soliman, representing Mohammed Madani, head of Agricultural Research Centre for the Ministry of Agriculture and Land reclamation, and Ezzeldin Gadallah, Director of the Central Lab of Palm, along with a number of consultants and experts in this field.

The Development of Palm Dates Strategy in Egypt aims at increasing exports from 38,000 tons to 120,000 tons per year in the upcoming five years. It also work to increase the average export price from $1,000 per ton to $1,500 during the same period. As a result, the financial resources of the country’s general budget in foreign currency will increase from $40 million to $180 million, the demand will increase at the local level, and the exports of non-manufactured dates will rise. Moreover, the strategy will results in taking advantage of the by-products and date palm remnants, and the creation of new jobs.