Economics of Processing Tomatoes in Egypt

摘要

The report in Arabic has an English summary. Consumption of processed tomato products has been rising dramatically, leading to sharply increased imports. Egypt processes only about 1 percent of its tomato production; the industry currently is not economically viable. The type of tomato grown in Egypt is not really suitable for processing; consideration should be given to growing different varieties. The costs of processing tomatoes in Egypt actually exceed the cost of imports. If the domestic processing industry is to be encouraged to overcome these adverse circumstances, radical changes are called for. Besides growing a different type of tomato, vertical integration to regulate raw product supply and domestic production of packaging materials were suggested.