Egypt and Japan are in negotiations to agree a policy of agricultural cooperation.
During talks held in Cairo, Egypt’s Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation El Sayyed el Quseir discussed the prospect of closer relations with Japanese ambassador Masaki Noke.
In a statement issued later, Mr Al-Qusayr said relations between the two countries had developed significantly in recent years.
There is already a growing trade with Egyptian citrus fruits flooding into Japan with the latest talks concentrating on adding grapes and pomegranates to the export order.
The minister and ambassador also discussed cooperation in fish farming, agricultural mechanisation and products, and the modernisation of irrigation methods.
Mr Noke said there was a long history of Egyptian-Japanese agricultural cooperation, particularly concerning rice cultivation and irrigation infrastructure.
He said cooperation with Egypt was part of an ongoing outreach by Japan into Africa, where it sees Cairo as an important player.
Egypt has also stepped up its trade with Italy in the past year.
A report prepared by the Italian embassy in Cairo put trade between the two countries during the first 10 months of 2020 at €3.4bn – a sizeable increase on the €4.3bn exchanged during the whole of 2019.
The commodities listed that Italy exported to Egypt showed a considerable range of products and services.
They included machinery, mechanical devices, electrical equipment, spare parts, mineral fuels, mineral oils, chemical and metal products, iron and steel, paper, optics, medical devices, rubber, textiles, cars, food products, furniture, and transport vehicles.
The latest statistics confirms Italy as Egypt’s foremost trading partner in Europe and fourth most significant overall when it comes to foreign investment.
There are reportedly some 1,424 Italian companies operating in the Egyptian market.
The most important areas of Italian investment in Egypt are oil and gas exploration, though its reach goes much further.
Italian interests stretch to industry, services, tourism, the financial sector, banking, con-
struction, infrastructure, agriculture, infor-mation and communication technology, and real estate.
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