Oleksii Pavlenko: Ukraine and Egypt have significant potential for expanding cooperation in agricultural sector

“Ukraine highly appreciates the traditionally good relations with Egypt. This country is still an important and promising trade and economic partner for us”, Oleksii Pavlenko, the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, stressed during a meeting with Essam Osman Fayed, the Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation of Arab Republic of Egypt, in the framework of the Global Forum of Food and Agriculture in Berlin (International Green Week in Berlin).

According to Oleksii Pavlenko, the total trade volume in agricultural products between Ukraine and Egypt has amounted to $941.9 million for 11 months of 2015. Particularly, the share of export part reached $908.2million while the import was $33.8 million.

The major export of Ukraine to Egypt was grain ($682 million), oil ($74.5 million), tobacco and tobacco products ($62.3 million) and oil seeds ($32.4 million).  At the same time, the major goods for import were fruits, nuts and rind ($31 million), vegetables, plants and root crops ($0.5 million).

The Minister stressed that Ukraine had started to export fats of animal origin to Egypt ($4.3 million) in 2015. Moreover, the export of live animal has increased eightfold for the previous year ($13.4 million) and the export of tobacco has practically doubled ($62.3 million).

 “Ukraine and Egypt have great prospects for the expansion of cooperation not only in trade but in the sphere of industrial cooperation as well. Ukraine is ready to establish regular supplies of agricultural products. Especially, this implies grain, livestock products, vegetable oil, confectionary and dairy products. We hope to hold the next session of the Intergovernmental Joint Commission on Economic and Scientific and Technical Cooperation with the aim of enhancing the bilateral cooperation between Ukraine and the Arab Republic of Egypt”, Oleksii Pavlenko stressed.