The Egyptian garlic season has started and the harvest has been relatively good this year. There are more smaller sizes available than larger sizes, and the past two months had unfavorable weather. However, thanks to a new calibration machine, one exporter is confident he’ll be able to meet demand and quality requests this year.
According to Mohamed Shaaban, general manager of Egyptian garlic exporter Garlico, the past two months have not been the best in terms of weather conditions: “The 2021 harvest of Egyptian garlic has been good, especially when talking about the violet variety. Egypt has more than 10,000 hectares of red garlic, of which the harvest started around the 20th of February and all garlic will be 100% fully dry and ready for export after the 15th of April. This year, the weather wasn’t great during January and February as there was a lot of fog. This in itself is not good for the growth of the garlic, so the production is mostly small calibers of 30/40/50mm. Bigger sizes of 55/60/70mm are limited this year.”
As an investment, Garlico has decided to add a new calibration machine to their packhouse, which they imported from China, Shaaban says. “Our company Garlico owns two packing houses and rents three more packing houses with more than 800 workers during the season. This year, we’ve added a calibration machine that we’ve imported from China to our packing house. The machine has 6 outlets and should help avoid any mistakes in labor in grading the garlic.”
Shaaban states the biggest challenge to overcome this season, was to make sure their produce was able to enter the market in Taiwan: “The biggest challenge we’re facing this year is the export to the Taiwanese market. Taiwan prefers to import Egyptian garlic and the consumers eat garlic with each meal. However, new requirements of the Taiwanese customs mean we must be very strict with soil, steam and skin cleaning. This process must be done with 100% precision or the produce will be rejected at the Taiwanese port. Another challenge will be to enter new markets like Australia, Germany and the rest of Europe. Last year we managed to export our red garlic to a lot of countries, like Canada, Brazil, USA, Spain, Italy, Greece and Taiwan.” he concludes.
Mr. Shaaban the manager of Garlico company started to accept purchase orders for the new season of dry garlic & green wet garlic by 10th March.
For more information:
Mohamed Shaaban
Garlico Egypt
Tel: +20 111 309 5812
Email: m.sh.exporting@gmail.com
Email: mohamed.shaaban@garlico-eg.com
www.GarlicoEgypt.trustpass.alibaba.com
Www.Garlico-eg.com