Farouk received a joint report from Ahmed Odham, Head of the Agricultural Services and Follow-up Sector, and Mohamed El-Mansy, Head of the Central Administration for Agricultural Quarantine, detailing the quarantine agency's efforts in technical negotiations with various countries, particularly concerning phytosanitary controls for fresh pomegranate exports to Venezuela.
The report indicated that the Egyptian Agricultural
Quarantine successfully secured a letter from the Venezuelan side, which
confirms the market's opening to Egyptian pomegranate exports without additional
phytosanitary requirements. The quarantine authority said this success would
help diversify Egypt's export portfolio in terms of products and global
markets.
Farouk affirmed that opening the Venezuelan market represents
a significant step within the ministry's strategy to secure new markets for
high-quality Egyptian agricultural products, and is in line with presidential
directives to support the national economy and enhance foreign exchange
earnings.
The minister credited the success primarily to the efforts
of the Egyptian Agricultural Quarantine staff and all relevant technical bodies
within the ministry, including Foreign Agricultural Relations, accredited
reference laboratories, and producers, for their commitment to applying the
highest international phytosanitary standards and ensuring the quality of the
Egyptian product. This adherence, he said, has earned Egyptian agricultural
exports the trust of global markets.
Farouk stressed that the ministry will continue to work to increase the number of available markets for various agricultural exports, in cooperation with farmers and exporters, to maintain the reputation of the Egyptian product and maximize the benefit from the unprecedented boom in agricultural production resulting from major national projects.