Egypt: Food Processing Ingredients

Egypt’s food and beverage manufacturing and processing sector suffered about $2.2 million (about a 10 percent decrease in sales) due to diminished tourism as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Egypt imported about $5.8 billion worth of food and beverage ingredients and additives in 2020. This is about an 18 percent decrease from the 2019 import value of $7.2 billion. The United States was Egypt’s seventh largest supplier with $225.4 million in sales accounting for about five percent of total market share. This is about a 74 percent increase from 2019 exports value of about $129.3 million. Egypt prioritizes food and beverage ingredients and additives imports, as well as food and beverage production inputs requiring further processing; these benefit from low to no tariff duties compared to finished products. U.S. food and beverage ingredients and additives exports to Egypt face competition from European and South American suppliers.