By: Omar Hassan
Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt’s Arafa Group intends to inaugurate new branches during 2023 and expand in all governorates.
Mohamed Arafa El-Attar, member of the export committee of the Egyptian African Businessmen's Association (EABA) and CEO of Arafa Group, told Mubasher that Haj Arafa Company, one of the group’s subsidiaries, studies expanding across Arab and African markets whether by relying on exporting products or opening branches of Haj Arafa company in those countries.
Moreover, he added that the group received many offers from Arab, African, and Egyptian entities to enter into partnerships, and seeks to reach the best offer in the coming period.
During the first quarter (Q1) of the year, the group is set to announce a new industrial project that will add value to the group's portfolio and the Egyptian market.
Investments in Siwa Oasis
The group plans to establish a dates factory in Egypt's Siwa Oasis with more than EGP 100 million in investments in 2023.
The factory will be built in partnership with the largest date producers in Siwa and will provide many jobs during the production stages. The dates will be sold in Asian and African markets.
The factory is set to be established through Haj Arafa and is expected to contribute to developing Siwa and upgrading its economic level and production.
Will food prices decline in 2023?
In this respect, Arafa stated that 2023 will be a year of weak growth and pressing high prices and the lesson learned from the past few years is that things can always go wrong.
Speaking figures, Arafa said that prices of crops dropped in Q4-22, but the high energy cost and the devaluation of local currencies against the US dollar resulted in a decline in the prices of agricultural crops. However, the price of the final product continues to hike, which emphasises that the stability of the exchange rate and the decrease in energy cost may lead to a decline in the prices of final products.
He concluded that the Egyptian economy would not stabilise except through a stable exchange rate and overcoming the parallel market, eventually leading to attracting foreign investments to Egypt.
