Strong demand for Egyptian dry garlic makes for a much more promising season than last year, says Ahmed Adel, CEO of Egyptian garlic exporter Global Veg Egy: "This year, the planted acreage this year for garlic has been very limited compared to the previous season. However, our company has kept growing in the same areas we grew in last year, and as such we are confident we can cover our customers' needs. That being said, the demand from our clients is stronger this season than any season before. So it's fortunate that the season started a bit earlier this year!"
Before the dry garlic, fresh garlic had also proven to have a winning season this year, although for both fresh and dry garlic there have been challenges with transport, Adel explains. "So far, we have had a promising season with both fresh white and purple garlic, due to a good harvest. However, we faced many problems with shipping this year, from the high cost of loading by air, to problems with big delays if one is shipping by sea. At the end of the day, we are happy with the season."
Demand has been so strong, that Adel has had to send garlic that hadn't completely dried yet, at the clients' request: "Normally, we would like to only do 100 per cent dried garlic, but many of our customers didn't want to wait. To compensate and help them out, we started packing when the garlic was only 50 per cent dried. This year, dry garlic prices are expensive, similar to fresh garlic prices, due to limited volumes of good harvest. With this in mind, I expect to have a strong competition from the Chinese garlic this year, as their prices are quite cheap this season."
With such a promising start to the season, Adel hopes that his company will be able to reach new markets with the dry garlic this season. "We already have programs with our customers and we would like to open new markets for us, such as the Dominic Republic, Lithuania, Canada and others. Currently we're already supplying Europe, Australia, USA and Taiwan. As we supply both retailers and wholesalers, our customers always have high standards when it comes to quality, packing and necessary certificates, such as Global gap, Grasp and Sedex."
"This year, I aim to extend our 1st class season until mid-August, like last year, so we stored enough volumes for our programs, as we store and dry the garlic ourselves, to be sure of the quality," Adel concludes.
For more information:
Ahmed Adel
Global Veg Egy
Tel: +201126684494
Email: Sales@globalvegy.com
www.globalvegy.com