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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 September 1999 Issue No. 445 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 September 1999 Issue No. 445
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Focus Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Potato prospects
By Niveen WahishEgyptian potato producers and exporters are holding their breath in anticipation of a decision by the European Commission on whether the EU will allow the entry of Egyptian potatoes and under what conditions. The decision is expected to be made this month when the European Commission's Standing Committee on Plant Health meets. The committee, which is made up of the 15 European Union (EU) member states, looks at issues regarding plant health in Europe.
The strong Egyptian interest stems from the fact that in March the EU placed a ban on Egyptian potato exports to its member countries because a large number of the potato consignments to the EU were infected with brown rot, a disease unique to this plant.
Egyptian potato exports to the EU have been subject to strict entry procedures for several years. The procedures, which involve thorough inspection of Egyptian potatoes imported by the EU, were put in place to make sure that those potatoes are free of brown rot disease. This disease infects potatoes and the soil where they are planted, but is not harmful to humans or animals. EU authorities wish to limit the introduction of brown rot into Europe from Egypt.
For several years the EU has been working with Egypt to find a way to prevent the spread of the disease. Around three years ago, the European Commission decided that imported potatoes must come from areas where the disease is not known to occur. Those areas were divided into plots of land and each was given a code number. Accordingly, each potato shipment was labelled with the same code number as the plot of land from which it originated. If any of the potato shipments was found to be infested with brown rot, exports from the plot where they were grown would be halted.
Moreover, a system for testing the export crop was adopted by the Egyptian authorities at the recommendation of the EC. This system succeeded in cutting down the number of infested consignments from over 100 in the 1996/97 export season to around 40 in 1997/98. However, according to Anthony Smith, First Counsellor at the EC delegation in Cairo, "as far as members were concerned this figure was still too high."
As a result, they decided in August 1998 to introduce a ban on Egyptian potatoes. However, there was a derogation to the ban, in that if the Egyptians identified pest-free areas, using the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) standards, then the commission would consider importing potatoes from those areas. However, if more than five cases overall were intercepted, an investigation must be made.
According to the FAO pest-free system, the soil was considered diseased unless proven free of brown rot. The system applied before was that the soil was considered clean unless proven otherwise and when there was an interception, the area with which it was identified saw its crop disallowed for export.
That system worked smoothly for several months, according to Smith, but towards the end of March 1999, the number of interceptions started to grow, reaching 52. The reaction of the commission was to lift the derogation and reinstate the ban in April.
"By that time, the season was more or less over, and producers were not hurt badly," said Smith. The normal period during which Egyptian potatoes are allowed into the EU market duty-free extends from January to April. During this period, Egypt is the major exporter of potatoes to the EU.
Since April, the Egyptian authorities, in cooperation with the potato exporters, have prepared and presented a report explaining why the number of interceptions of the disease has increased and have drawn maps of the new pest-free areas as well as the old ones. This report will be studied by the commission, and in light of this study, a decision is supposed to be taken by the standing committee.
Will Egypt's potato exports end up on the local market?
photo: Youssry Aql
But the problem does not end there. The Egyptian Seed Association (ESA) has threatened to boycott imports of potato seeds from EU member countries. The move is seen as an attempt to pressure EU seed producers into pushing the EC to take a decision in favour of Egypt.
"Why should we import European seeds if we cannot find a market for our crop, especially since 60 per cent of our costs go into importing the seeds," said Hesham El-Naggar, export manager of Daltex, an ESA member company which specialises in exporting agricultural crops. The EU is Egypt's main export market for potatoes, he said. It exports around 200,000 tons annually to the EU, which represents 90 per cent of its total potato exports.
Egyptian producers have been working according to the directives of the EU regarding the testing and the plots where the crop is planted, so they wish the EU would treat them more fairly, El-Naggar added. "And we applied the FAO pest-free area system despite the fact that it had never been applied before anywhere, and we were not given enough time to prepare ourselves." When the decision to use the system was made in September, producers had already started planting the crop. Farmers usually begin to seed the land in August and to start harvesting and exporting the following January.
El-Naggar attributed the increase in the number of interceptions to the fact that farmers were not given enough time to adjust, and since they had already planted their crop, some tried to sneak their crops into the EU fraudulently alongside clean shipments.
But this was not the only problem. A report filed by Egyptian exporters to the EU, following reimposition of the ban, complained that Egypt was discriminated against regarding the potato issue. The conditions imposed on Egyptian potato exports to the EU were not equally applied to potato exports from other countries, the report said. Moreover, some farmers had already cultivated some areas with varieties that are not domestically consumed, and they were not sure they would be able to market their crops.
However, Smith pointed out that despite the belated decision to apply the FAO pest-free area system, Egypt was able to export around 200,000 tons, rather than its targeted figure of 150,000.
But he said he hoped that next season the problem would be under control. It is in the interest of both Europe and Egypt to solve this problem, according to Smith. That is why the EU has set up a technical assistance project, valued at 600,000 euros (over LE2.1 million) at the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture to help overcome the problem. Some two million euros (over LE7 million) have also been pledged as additional financing for phase two of the project.
"The lack of Egyptian potatoes creates a problem not only for Egyptian producers but also for Europeans as well because they would be left with a period during which they would have no supply of potatoes," Smith said. However, if the ban were to become permanent, other producers would take the place of Egyptian producers, he added.
And this is exactly what Egyptian producers fear. Hesham El-Naggar said that this is already happening. Because of the uncertainty surrounding the future of Egyptian potatoes, some European importers have already begun to make deals with other producers, and Egypt risks losing this niche in the European market.
