Egypt’s Printing Exports to Get a Boost

Egypt is the new Chair of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), taking over from Madagascar. The move comes as a great historical opportunity to boost Egyptian exports in the printing sector.

Ahmed Jaber, Egypt’s Undersecretary of the Export Council for Printing, Packaging, Paper, Literary and Artistic Works, said that Egypt taking over COMESA leadership will open new horizons for exports to African countries in the printing sector.

Jaber added that Egypt has tremendous opportunities to invade the African market, especially in light of the availability of production capacity and machines in the printing sector in Egypt that can be exported abroad.

He was also of the opinion that despite the coronavirus crisis, the sector was able to achieve a surplus in exports from the packaging sector, describing the importance of packaging as a “silent seller.”

He pointed out that the first marketer of any product was the packaging industry and the way of raising the value of exports of any product depends on the quality of its packaging.

Egypt’s exports from the printing and packaging sector recorded an increase during the first 10 months of 2021, compared to last year, which is a very acceptable percentage in light of the current conditions the country is going through, especially since some countries are still closing their doors until now, pointing out that Egypt is achieving more increases in export rates.

The sector’s total exports recorded about $773 million until October 2021, compared to $518 million until October 2020.

The Undersecretary of the Export Council revealed that the packaging sector’s exports increased by 55% during the first 10 months of this year, to record about $491 million until October 2021, compared to $317 million for the same period in 2020.

The report revealed that Egypt’s exports from the paper sector and its products – including packaging paper and tissue paper – increased by 40% to record about $268 million until October 2021, compared to $191 million for the same period in 2020.