Minister Plenipotentiary Trade Nasser Hamed, Director of the European Union Department at the Trade Representation Authority, said that the volume of trade exchange between Egypt and Britain increased during the first quarter of this year by 8% to reach 519 million pounds, compared to 481 million pounds during the same period in 2020.
This came during a symposium organized by the Export Council for Food Industries today, in cooperation with the Commercial Representation Agency and the General Authority for Export and Import Control, under the title "Developing food industry exports to the United Kingdom."
He explained that the volume of Egyptian exports during the first quarter of this year amounted to about 219 million pounds, compared to about 223 million pounds during the same period last year, while Egypt's imports from Britain amounted to about 300 million pounds, compared to 258 million pounds in the same period last year. .
He added that the volume of British investments in Egypt amounted to about 3.5 billion dollars, accounting for 33% of the total European investments, noting that "Britain" is the third largest investing country in Egypt after the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia at the world level and the first at the European level.
On the Egyptian food industry exports to the United Kingdom, Hamed indicated that despite the impact of the Corona pandemic on the volume of exports during the past year, the Egyptian food industry exports to Britain achieved an increase of about 76% to reach 24 million pounds, compared to 13.6 million pounds during the year 2020. The most important exports are (molasses - vegetable oils and fats - chocolate and food preparations - strawberries - onions - vegetables, fruits and nuts - spices - preparations for sauces).
He added that the UK economy is huge and advanced and occupies an important position globally, with a gross domestic product of about 1.9 trillion pounds, equivalent to 2.7 trillion dollars (the service sector accounts for 79.6% of it, the industrial sector accounts for 19.7%, and the agricultural sector accounts for 0.7%). The United Kingdom imported from the world during the past year about 493 billion pounds.
With regard to the Egyptian-British partnership agreement and its impact on Egyptian exports, Hamed explained that the terms of the Egyptian-British partnership agreement are the same as the terms of the European partnership agreement, and the similarities are many, except for some minor differences in issues related to quotas, quotas or export seasons for some products such as grapes and strawberries.
Hamed stressed that there is great interest in developing Egyptian exports to the United Kingdom after the agreement, pointing out that there are close negotiations with the British side through the Egyptian-British Partnership Committee chaired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss some problems and obstacles that may face Egyptian exports and how to work on developing exports, in addition to discussing The position of some export quotas or seasons to the British market.
He added that the British market has 4 major commercial chains that account for about 66% of the total market for food products, and the commercial chains are one of the targets for the development of Egyptian food industries exports, as the Trade Representation Authority, in cooperation with the Export Council for Food Industries, will focus during the coming period on holding direct meetings With supply managers in various countries, in addition to focusing on food directed to Arab chains of stores, noting that a meeting will be held soon with one of the largest commercial chains in Germany.
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