Egypt’s exports of fresh fruit and vegetables to African markets reached $491.4 million in 2025, part of a wider push by Cairo to expand trade across the continent beyond its traditional North African buyers.
Egypt’s total exports to African Union countries stood at $7.6 billion in 2025, down from $7.8 billion in 2024, with Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia remaining the largest destinations for Egyptian goods. The figures were presented at a forum in Cairo organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt and the African Export-Import Bank.
Industry Minister Khaled Hashem told the forum that Egypt plans to diversify its export destinations into East, West and Central Africa, moving beyond the North African markets that have long dominated its continental trade. Mohamed Kassem, chairman of the Egyptian Exporters Association, identified agriculture as an area with particular room for growth, calling for improvements to shipping and logistics, trade facilitation, market intelligence and export financing.
Looking beyond North Africa
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) featured as a backdrop to the forum’s discussions, though no official was quoted specifically on its role in Egypt’s export plans. The overall dip in Egyptian exports to AU countries between 2024 and 2025 — from $7.8 billion to $7.6 billion — came even as the agricultural component held up, suggesting fresh produce has so far been more resilient than Egypt’s wider basket of exports to the continent.
Hashem’s stated ambition to reach East, West and Central Africa would mean competing in markets further from Egypt’s traditional overland and short-sea routes to Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia, raising the logistics questions Kassem’s remarks pointed to directly.
What it would take to grow faster
Kassem’s list of needs — better shipping and logistics, trade facilitation, market intelligence and export financing — echoes complaints exporters across the region have raised for years about the cost and unpredictability of moving perishable goods across African borders. Neither Hashem nor Kassem set out a timeline or named specific markets for the planned diversification.
The forum did not name the specific crops behind the $491.4 million figure, referring only to “fresh vegetables and fruit” and “agricultural products” in general terms.
