Egypt: New packing house to accommodate growth

Packing houses are considered to be essential investments that produce companies require to maintain a high quality of produce. Packing houses also help firms save money and effort in packing their various produce.

More packing houses means quicker and more efficient turnover. According to Mahmoud El Shishiny, Commercial Director at Magrabi Agriculture (MAFA) in Cairo Egypt, “Although our main products are grapes and citruses we also produce pomegranates, dates, strawberries, vegetables, mangos and organic orange juice. We produce 100% of our citrus and a majority of our grapes, which all end up in one of our packing houses. Right now we’ve got different types of packing houses that vary in size and capacity."

Currently, the company maintains 3 packing houses for citrus, 1 packing house for pomegranate, 3 packing houses for grapes and 1 packing house for the local market. Magrabi also owns one salad packhouse and one strawberry packhouse.

“Our company’s exports are growing, we are already present in 54 markets, with the UK being the biggest. We are also looking to strengthen our clientele in the East. Right now we are available in countries such as China, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia,” adds El Shishiny.

There are quite a few factors affecting produce companies such as, fluctuating currencies and competition. “We are expecting this season to be a good one for us in terms of production, especially for citrus which has been stable for quite a while. But because of the drop in our currency, we are expecting production, shipping and packing costs to almost double."

Despite the lower value of our currency and tough internal competition from other firms in Egypt, and from countries such as Spain and Morocco, El Shishiny is confident that they will be able to weather the storm and continue their upward growth.

"We are able to consistently control our internal production, we know the market very well, we have tried and tested marketing programs for our customers and we have numerous quality certifications from different countries and institutions.”

Growing companies require the proper tools to help them achieve and manage their growth. “Given our expected increase in sales this year, it is important that our company invests in packing houses to help manage our growth."