Organic Egypt

About us

Organic agriculture in Egypt dates back to the mid-1970s, though it should be pointed out that until the 1940s, Egyptian farmers used no fertilizers or pesticides on their crops. Prior to the construction of the Aswan High Dam, the Nile's annual flood swamped farmland and left behind a thick layer of fertile soil, which nurtured the land naturally.

The development of new farming technologies in the sector of conventional agriculture has led to a tremendous growth during the past decades. Though, the related costs of such growth are significant and oftentimes hidden. Well known effects of intensive agriculture are topsoil depletion, groundwater pollution and scarcity and increasing cost of production. Today, Organic farming in Egypt is struggling with low productivity, the absence of good marketing structures and the absence of reliable and cost-effective certification options. Moreover, the area of agricultural land in Egypt is limited to the Nile Valley and delta, with a few oases and some arable land in Sinai. The total cultivated area is 3.6 million hectares of land, representing only 4% of the total land area of the country.