Egypt sees 25-30% jump in fertiliser exports this year

Egypt hopes to boost its fertiliser exports by nearly 25-30 percent in 2023 after achieving record high sales in the past months due to ongoing war in Ukraine, industry officials have said.

Chemical and fertiliser exports by the most populous Arab nation peaked at nearly $9 billion in 2022, accounting for around 25 percent of the country’s total non-oil exports, according to Khalid Abu Al-Makarim, Chairman of the Chemicals and Fertilisers Export Council at the Egyptian Trade Ministry.

Quoted by the Arabic language daily Addustour on Wednesday, Al-Makarim said fertiliser exports alone leaped by 42 percent to $3.4 billion in 2022 from $2.3 billion in 2021.

“The Council is now targeting growth of 25-30 percent in fertilizers and chemicals exports in 2023,” he said, adding that Egypt benefited largely from the Ukraine war to become the world’s seventh largest fertiliser exporter.

The paper quoted Mohammed Al-Khishn, a member of the Board of the Cairo-based Arab Fertilisers Association, as saying Egypt’s exports of those materials are projected to surge by at least 25 percent this year.

“Russia was one of the largest fertiliser exporters in the world…after the war erupted, Egypt became a key exporter of this material to a large number of countries,” he said.