Egypt’s Pomegranate: From Local Fields to Global Markets

Updated 11/9/2024 9:00:00 AM

As Egypt is looking forward to diversifying its exports and generating foreign income, pomegranate appears to be one of the promising crops to expand the country’s agricultural exports and access to new markets.

With a comparative advantage concerning the production of pomegranate, Egypt’s pomegranate season can span longer than in almost any other region.

In this Factsheet, we will discover the scene of cultivating, producing, and exporting pomegranate in Egypt.

Egypt grows different types of pomegranate, including local varieties such as Manfaloti, Taif, and Baladi. Moreover, Egypt has successfully cultivated the American Wonderful pomegranate, which has shown high productivity and good specifications in the Egyptian environment.
These varieties enable Egypt to continuously supply international markets with its pomegranate when other suppliers cannot export.
In the 2021/2022 season, the area dedicated to pomegranate cultivation in Egypt increased by 4.2% year-on-year (YoY), reaching 83,268 feddans.
The production of pomegranate remarkably increased from 672,827 tons in the 2020/2021 season to 995,477 tons in 2021/2022. This represents an annual growth rate of 47.9%. Pomegranate represents around 8% of Egypt's total fruit production.
Egypt’s production of pomegranate is mainly directed to domestic consumption, as 78% of the domestic production is locally consumed, while 22% is exported.
Notably, the average per capita consumption of pomegranate in Egypt is about 7 kilograms in a year.
Pomegranate is grown in hot, dry areas, so its cultivation is very good in Upper Egypt, where fruits need high temperatures to complete the ripening process.
In the 2021/2022 season, Noubaria had the lion’s share in Egypt’s production of pomegranate, contributing around 725,000 tons, or 73% of the country’s total production.
Assiut came in second place with 19% or 186,447 tons, followed by Beheira with 22,179 tons of pomegranate.
Pomegranate is one of Egypt’s top 10 agricultural exports. In 2023, Egypt’s pomegranate exports accounted for 3% of its total agriculture exports.
Egypt exported around $114 million worth of pomegranates across 36 international markets in 2023.
Arab countries dominated the Egyptian pomegranate exports in 2023. Iraq came at the top of the list, importing $35 million worth of pomegranates, which accounted for 31% of Egypt’s pomegranate exports. Syria came second, importing $34 million worth of pomegranates, which represent 30% of Egypt’s total exports. Russia ranked third with imports valued at $14 million, making up 12% of Egypt’s pomegranate exports.