Cabinet denies drop in Egypt's agricultural exports

CAIRO - 15 May 2020: The cabinet media center denied news circulated recently that the Egyptian agricultural exports have dropped by 25 percent due to the coronavirus crisis.

In a statement on Friday, the center said it contacted the Trade and Industry Ministry which dismissed as groundless the reports.

The ministry pointed out that Egypt's agricultural exports have hit 821 million dollars during the first quarter of 2020, against 812 million dollars registered during the same period the year before.

Highlighting an increasing international demand on the Egyptian agricultural products despite the global outbreak of COVID-19, the ministry said that Egypt has exported about 2.23 million tons of fruit and vegetables in the first quarter of 2020.

Egypt tops world countries in orange exports with exports hitting about 1.2 million tons, it added.

Separately, the Egyptian non-petroleum exports increased during the first quarter of 2020 by 2%, hitting 6.728 billion dollars, compared with 6.580 billion dollars recorded during the same period in 2019.

Meanwhile, imports went down by 24%, recording 13.814 billion dollars, against 18.233 billion dollars during in the past year