Egypt is the third biggest orange exporter in the world. The country’s export value and quantity in 2018 was 666.3 million USD and 774 K tons. Both the export value and quantity have been increasing for the last 5 years, and the trend is expected to continue. The global orange market has also been expanding for the last 5 years, currently valued at 5.3 billion USD.
Price is one of the most important competitive edges for Egyptian oranges. According to a managing partner at Egyptian Growers Organization, an Egyptian orange exporter, on average, Egyptian oranges are around 30% cheaper than oranges from other countries such as Spain, Israel, and Turkey. The country benefits from low production costs due to low labor costs. The government subsidy scheme also allows exporters, such as Egyptian Growers Organization, to maintain a lower price in the international markets. The subsidy scheme provides orange exporters a payment based on the size of the company, markets targeted, production regions, logistics routes, and specific expenses incurred.
Egyptian Growers Organization prices its oranges low at the beginning of the season and gradually increases the price towards the end of January when the production declines and exports to China increase. During the orange season, the farm prices tend to be between 120 and 300 USD per ton. The company’s FOB prices are between 380 and 450 USD per ton. This is lower than Spanish oranges which are priced at around 600 USD per ton, on average.
Egypt’s seasonality is another competitive edge. Orange production starts in December when there are no other oranges available in large quantities in the Eastern European and the Arab region. Egypt’s orange season is also directly opposite to South Africa’s, another major orange exporting country to Europe.
During the 2019 season, the export prices and FOB prices of Egyptian oranges have remained relatively stable. However, the farm gate prices have fluctuated throughout the season due to rising production and packaging costs as well as oversupply in the Egyptian market over the last few seasons.
Egypt is expected to produce between 5.5 and 6.0 million tons of oranges in 2019, which is a 30% decrease from 2018. In the 2019 season, the temperatures were high during the flowering and bud development stage, which led to a lot of bud drop and lowered production volume compared to last year. According to Egyptian Growers Organization, the crop that remains is expected to be larger in size. This could lead to a lower quality fruit if fertigation and irrigation practices are not observed properly as the bigger fruit is more likely to dry out internally or produce larger white piths, which are unfavorable. To avoid this, farmers need to water more regularly during the oranges’ filling stages and need to observe a strict application of certain fertilizers to maintain a better fruit structure. The company’s oranges are high in quality: its Navels and Valencias have high colorations and Brix levels surpassing 12.
