Egypt is sharply reducing imports of seed potatoes; the 2024/25 season may be in jeopardy

Seed potato imports in Egypt hit a six-year low in September-October 2023, EastFruit reports. In these months, only 16.6 thousand tons of seed potatoes were supplied to the country - this is almost three times less than in the same period of the previous season, which lasts mainly from September to February. “Judging by the dynamics of the first two months of autumn 2023, Egypt risks importing the lowest volume of seed potatoes in at least the last six seasons. This, in turn, could have a negative impact on the harvest and export of ware potatoes from Egypt in the next 2024/25 season, because the dynamics of seed imports has a delayed effect on the final product market,” comments Evgeny Kuzin, fruit and vegetable market analyst at the EastFruit project. Egypt is one of the world's most important producers and exporters of potatoes: in 2022, the country ranked twelfth in global production of this product and was the sixth largest exporter in the world! At the same time, Egypt is ...