Scandals and success: how Egypt breaks records in grape exports to EU in 2023

Egypt achieved a remarkable increase in its fresh table grape exports to the EU countries in 2023, reports EastFruit. However, this success was tainted by scandals involving the illegal use of protected grape varieties in the country. Despite this, the Egyptian products reached a historical record in the EU market for the main supply season in 2023!

From January to October 2023, Egypt exported more than 70 thousand tons of fresh table grapes to the EU. This result was over a third higher than the whole calendar year of 2022, and surpassed the average of the previous five calendar years by 37%!

June was the key month that ensured the record volume of Egyptian exports to the EU, as the Egyptian exporters boosted their sales by 50% compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, the supplies in other months of the main export season (May, July, August, and September) were not as impressive, but still relatively high.

It is also noteworthy that Egypt increased its export volumes to all the major markets in the EU region. For instance, the Egyptian grape exports to the Netherlands grew by 15% to 30 thousand tons per year, and those to Germany soared by 50% to 21 thousand tons. Slovenia surprisingly ranked third among the importing countries for 2023, importing more than 4 thousand tons of products, which was almost a fivefold increase from the previous year. Poland, Italy, Czech Republic, Austria, and others were also among the other key buyers of grapes from Egypt.