Indonesia the World's Largest Egyptian Dates Importer

TheIndonesia.id - Indonesia received an appreciation as the largest importer of dates from Egypt, which was marked by an award from the Governor of Marsa Matrouh Province Major General Khaled Shuaib. The award was given to Indonesian Ambassador to Egypt Lutfi Rauf on the sidelines of the 5th Egyptian Date Palm Festival 2022 event in the City of Siwa.

Based on Egyptian statistical data, the export value of Egyptian dates to Indonesia in the January-September 2021 period reached 10.34 million US dollars with a market share of 17.89 percent of the total exports of Egyptian dates to the rest of the world. Indonesian Ambassador also explained that the total increase in Indonesia-Egypt trade reached 1.63 billion US dollars in January-November 2021 or an increase of 53.52 percent compared to the same period the previous year.

"The main imported products from Egypt include rock phosphate, dates, molasses, citrus oranges, and potatoes," Lutfi said in a written statement received by Antara, Sunday, January 23, 2022.

Lutfi added the need for research and development (R&D) collaboration between Indonesian-Egyptian researchers and academics investigating the benefits of dates. Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Muslim Indonesia (UMI) in collaboration with a date management institution in Madinah, Saudi Arabia, has researched the efficacy of ajwa dates in reducing the risk of hypertension in pregnancy and lactation and suppressing menopause with excellent results.

"This needs serious attention by researchers and related parties in Indonesia as an effort to fill 75 years of Indonesia-Egypt relations," he said.

Meanwhile, Khaled Shuaib representing the Egyptian government expressed his highest appreciation for the trust from Egyptian dates importers, especially importers from Indonesia, Morocco, and Malaysia. "This award is given as an appreciation to the Indonesian Embassy in Cairo for promoting Egyptian dates to Indonesian citizens and providing assistance to Egyptian companies to conduct business communication with importers in Indonesia," said Khaled.

During the date festival, the Indonesian Ambassador who was accompanied by the Trade Attache of the Indonesian Embassy in Cairo Irman Adi Purwanto Moefthi also held a meeting with the Egyptian Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Ahmed Reda. Irman said that Indonesia was very committed to increasing its trade cooperation with Egypt.

Indonesia certainly really needs date products which are one of the main commodities in Egypt and Egypt has also imported a lot of main products from Indonesia such as palm oil, coffee, cocoa, coconut, spices, and other products. Indonesia hopes that with the great potential of these commodities, both sides will provide breakthroughs for the development of other sector commodity products that have great opportunities to be traded.

"It is clear that Indonesian and Egyptian products complement each other, not compete," said Irman.

The 5th Egyptian Date Palm Festival 2022 which will be held from 22-24 January 2022 was attended by more than 200 date producers including from Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Mauritania, and Tunisia.