It seems that Europeans, even as we are still in the early days of the new year, have already set their sights on meddling in Egypt’s ever-ambiguous agricultural policies. On the same day, two high-profile European Union figures called for reforms, liberalisation, and activation of Egypt’s agricultural sector.
The first was Mr Marc Franco, the EU’s new ambassador to Cairo, who made a direct and serious appeal to the Egyptian parliament to liberalise agricultural trade between Egypt and the EU by 90%. He also spoke of agreements extending beyond the mere exchange of goods and services.
According to him, this would allow Egyptian businesses to enter the EU’s single market, currently the largest economic zone permitting the free movement of goods, people, services, and capital, granting access to 500 million consumers across 27 countries.
But Mr Franco did not stop there. He was keen to stress Europe’s eagerness, claiming the EU was ready to assist Egypt with its expertise and resources in this field, in addition to the financial support available—ranging between €140 million and €150 million per year.
On the very same day, and in what did not seem like a coincidence, Mr François Olivier, managing director of the German agricultural giant Makro—one of the world’s largest producers and traders of crops—arrived in Cairo. With notable caution, he expressed his company’s interest in expanding its dealings with Egypt’s agricultural sector, despite its dissatisfaction with conditions on the ground.
Makro had previously issued a report describing the dire state of Egyptian agriculture, highlighting its reliance on contaminated irrigation water (sewage) and the use of internationally banned pesticides. Egyptian Agriculture Minister Amin Abaza, who made sure to attend a press conference with Mr Olivier following their ‘important’ meeting, admitted that some violations do exist within Egypt’s agricultural sector.
However, he insisted that these were no more than isolated cases, occurring on a very limited scale—just as they do in agricultural sectors worldwide. What he failed to mention, however, was that these ‘individual cases’ included the government itself, despite his attempt to downplay the issue.
The real curiosity here is the ‘orchestrated coincidence’ of the EU ambassador arriving with his reformist rhetoric and his promise of millions in aid should Egypt agree to these policies—at the exact same time as a top executive from one of the world’s largest agricultural firms expressed his company’s ‘reluctant’ yet ‘strong’ desire to collaborate with Egypt, despite the fact that its produce is irrigated with sewage water and doused in banned pesticides. ‘But no problem’, apparently.
Even more bizarre is Europe’s apparent concern for Egypt’s agricultural sector and its insistence on liberalising it—despite the fact that the EU itself is one of the world’s biggest spenders on agricultural subsidies, making its own sector one of the least liberalised. Is this not a contradiction in European policy? And are these two visits, at the exact same time, not suspicious? Especially when one considers that European consumers are unlikely to rush to buy Egyptian fruit and vegetables more saturated with toxins than with nutrients—after all, their stomachs are not quite as ‘resilient’ as ours. Meanwhile, the notion that Egyptians would willingly buy rocket from France at €2 per bundle (EGP 15) or German strawberries at €15 per kilo (EGP 115) is laughable.
What this EU-backed liberalisation—pushed forward with diplomatic skill and the lure of aid—will actually achieve is the further degradation of Egypt’s already chaotic agricultural sector. Its markets, already flooded with Chinese guavas, might soon be drowning in Indian peaches for variety’s sake, while the Egyptian farmer is left with no choice but to abandon wheat cultivation altogether and take to the streets as a fruit vendor instead.
This article is originally published by AlBorsa in Arabic and later AI-translated by South Push.