Onion producers from Europe and Central Asia benefit from Egypt’s self-imposed market ban

Analysts from EastFruit have reported that Egyptian government’s attempt to manually manipulate their economy has led to a self-imposed onion export prohibition for the final quarter of 2023. This approach often results in setbacks for local companies and unintentionally assists their competitors. Egypt’s onion exports helped generate more than $217 million revenue in 2022 and $155 million during the first half of 2023. However, the recent decision seems to cut-off fairly large foreign exchange earnings. The Egyptian government took this step due to a significant increase in prices of domestic onions caused by a near 50% devaluation of the Egyptian pound over the previous 12 months. Yet, the timing has ironically stepped on the heels of the EU, Eastern European and Central Asian farmers and exporters gaining a competitive edge over Egypt. Countries like Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Moldova, Tajikistan, and others within the same region are now expected to significantly benefit from this situation and potentially solve their issues of onion surplus. Exporters from Ukraine and now Egypt-free Middle Eastern countries could look forward to effectively marketing their onion yields.