Egypt – a country of contrasts: fertile Nile basin and dusty deserts, life with the bare minimum necessary for survival at one extreme, luxury and superfluity at the other. Modern skyscrapers and symbols of war as a demonstration of power, just a few streets away from dilapidated old buildings which look as though they are about to collapse. On the banks of the Nile centuries-old mosques, and right next to them illuminated cola advertising. Confrontation between the religions, outlooks and cultures. The West has marched into Egypt and met up with the Middle East. Sometimes it is welcomed, at others hated.
Syngenta is the market leader
Why Egypt at all, you may well ask? But the question is easy to answer. The country has great attractions and opportunities for an agribusiness company like Syngenta. The most obvious argument is of course the climate which, with its mild winters, allows farming activities to continue throughout the year; this in turn means that sale of the products is assured on a year-round basis. From the angle of corporate strategy there is another very important factor. Egypt with its unsaturated market may well count among the emerging countries whose economy is still in a developing phase by comparison with Western nations but it does have great potential. New customers can be acquired here instead of having to win them away from the competition. There are opportunities here, but also risks. Risks which have led many competitors to fight shy of entering the market or to pull out again after a few years. Along with good performance that is yet another reason why Syngenta is the market leader in Egypt today.
Export and Import
Today, farming is still an important sector of the Egyptian economy. This is despite other areas such as textile processing, the food industry and raw material extraction growing rapidly. Agriculture has changed from subsistence farming to an export industry so that in relative terms fewer local foodstuffs such as millet or broad beans are harvested. Today, cotton, sugar cane, wheat and a great many varieties of fruit and vegetables are the farmers’ mainstays.
Driving towards Beni Suef through the region of the village of Al Badrachen some 20 kilometres south of Cairo, you come across stands selling tomatoes, cabbages, potatoes as well as oranges, bananas and mangoes - all offered for sale both here and in Cairo. Small open trucks also cart around whole cargoes of garlic and zucchinis. And the typical local donkey carts carry animal fodder in the shape of a distinctive variety of clover.
But Egypt is not entirely self-sufficient and has to import around one-half of the food that the country needs. Over ten million tons of cereals are supplied each year, mainly from the USA and Canada.
Fresh deliveries
However, a great deal of fruit and vegetables are exported as a tour of the “new reclaimed lands”, between Cairo and Alexandra, shows. One of the leading exporters who uses crop protection and seed products made by Syngenta and is in close customer contact with the field service employees, Ahmed Abuzahra and Ahmed Rashed, is the Belco company owned by the Sherif and Mohsen El-Beltagy brothers in Zamalek. It is currently managed by the 29 year-old Chilean Jorge Salgado, who emigrated five years ago from Santiago to Egypt.
On vast fields, Belco is now growing crops such as table grapes, green beans, peas, salad onions and paprika, as well as other produce like strawberries, fresh garlic, peaches, artichokes and melons. Belco, the chief executive explains with a touch of pride, “is one of the biggest suppliers of fresh produce and nearly all of it is destined for the export market.” To begin with, top quality grapes were exported to Germany but by now many new markets have been added in the shape of Great Britain, Holland and Mauritius, to say nothing of Switzerland. “In future”, Jorge Salgado maintains, “Egypt is set to become something like the garden of Europe.” When it comes to quality, Belco is number one for exports of fresh products from Egypt and in volume terms it ranks number two.
An extensive range of products
For vegetable and fruit growing a number of Syngenta products are used: they include the fungicides Switch®, Topas®, Amistar®, Ridomil Gold®, and Sequestrene® to control iron chlorosis. Jorge Salgado is delighted with the service provided by Ahmed Abuzahra and Ahmed Rashed. “Syngenta supplies me with all the products that I need,” the Belco chief executive points out. “Beginning with first-class service!”
Other producers along the highway from Cairo to Alexandria are equally happy with Syngenta products and service. “Orchard”, another farm privately owned by Hamam Elmalt and run by Ahmed Ibrahim, mainly exports grapes, salad and paprika, for instance to Great Britain and Switzerland and also to some of the Arab Emirates such as Dubai. “We want to meet the same quality standards for all our export markets,” Ahmed Ibrahim says, “That is why we only use well established crop protection products.” He is investing in a new refrigeration plant and in a new building to pack fresh produce.
Potato chips fresh to the table
Successful cooperation has also been established over the years with Chipsy, the potato producer which has recently joined the Pepsico group. The business employs several thousand persons in Egypt and controls around three-quarters of the national market for potato chips. One of the most popular brands is Frito-Lay.
To grow its potatoes, Chipsy is also able to count on support from Syngenta. In addition to advice on an innovative irrigation system, assistance covers such issues as potato diseases, including late blight (Phytophtora infestans) and early blight (Alternaria solani). “To control both these diseases”, Emad Mohamed Ali, the Chipsy chief executive explains, “Syngenta supplies very good products and we are happy with the advice and assistance provided by its expert staff”.
In Egypt Syngenta not only helps the small farmers with their growing of fruit and vegetables it also assists the big producers. But both categories of farmers have one thing in common: Syngenta products and health crops are the vital key to bringing in a rich harvest!
Creative minds and good ideas
In Egypt, Syngenta is not only banking on the marketing and sale of its products but also on innovative research and development. It has been operating a research station for several decades at Kaha near Cairo. There is a main building with laboratories, canteen and guest rooms, a number of ancillary structures and above all big trial fields. The station has been operated for more than thirty years in cooperation with the local Ministry of Agriculture. “The cooperation contract has repeatedly been extended and this joint venture with the State has proved highly successful over the years”, according to Erhard Brunner, station manager and a Swiss citizen by birth.
Laboratory tests...
A tour of the laboratories reveals the projects which are under way in Kaha: they include, for example, tests to control fungi such as leaf and tuber blight (Phytophtora infestans), pests such as spider mites and scale insects and also against all kinds of weeds. Last year, out of a total of around 280 tests, just under 70% consisted of trials with insecticides, around 17% involved fungicides, 12% herbicides and the rest smaller special tests, for example in the seed materials and professional products business areas.
“Our laboratory and field trials”, Erhard Brunner goes on to explain, “are conducted primarily to assist the research and development functions at Syngenta. But we also undertake joint tests with the Ministry and resistance monitoring; we endeavour to improve particular methods and technologies”.
… and in the field
The field trials with the various active substances made by Syngenta are particularly exciting, as a tour of the vast outdoor facilities also showed. “Here we test our products for instance to determine resistance to rain and light”, Adel Morcos, Head of the Development and Training Division explains, with real pride and refers to the special features of the test conditions for the different crop varieties such as the nature of the soils or the relative dryness.
Growing useful insects
New areas of experimentation are repeatedly tried in Kaha, as Adel and his colleague Naglaa Monir explain. An innovative laboratory has recently been opened at the research station for experiments with small thread worms, known as nematodes, or the growing of useful insects as part of the Syngenta “bioline”. This involves, in particular, the often difficult task of breeding parasitic wasps (Eretmocerus mundus) which are then deployed to control white flies (Bemisia tabaci). “Breeding these valuable insects involves a great deal of manual work and dexterity; they are then packaged and shipped off all over the world” Erhard points out. At the Kaha station there is also a breeding department for all kinds of insects, such as grasshoppers, a laboratory with special snail tests, training programmes for the application of crop protection agents for the benefit of farmers in the region and – just recently - an innovative system for field irrigation which is run by farm manager, Khaled Shaaban. The station’s finance manageress, Hoda el Shawarby, has been working hard for many years to prevent the costs of all these activities from running out of control.
Through constant adjustments to meet the latest standards, the Kaha station not only has several decades of successful activities under its belt but also a bright future ahead, thanks to more and more innovative developments!
