Italy to cooperate in building Egypt’s commodities exchange

The Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FEDCOC) signed Wednesday an agreement with Italian Online Commodities Exchange (BMTI).

Upon this agreement, Egypt aims at benefiting from the experience of the BMTI so as to launch its own commodities exchange as part of a greater plan to boost the Egyptian exports and develop its domestic market.

Italy will support and cooperate in all the studies to be made to launch the Egyptian commodities exchange, said Alaa Ezz – General Secretary of the federations of Egyptian and European chambers.

Maurizio Martina – Italy’s Minister of Agriculture; Andrea Zanlari – Chairman of the BMTI; in addition to the deputy head of the Federation of the Italian Chambers have met with the FEDCOC’s officials and signed the agreement. The Italian officials stressed their country’s keenness to cooperate and share the Italian experience in the commodities exchange management.

As part of the EuroMed Invest programme, the European Union will also give its support to the Egyptian authorities to establish the country’s long-awaited commodities exchange, Ezz added.

Earlier in 2014, Egyptian Supply Minister Khaled Hanafy announced his country’s schemes to launch the first and biggest commodities exchange in the Middle East.

The planned Egyptian commodities exchange is set to be a hub of contracting, trading, receiving and distributing the grains for the Arab world.

The Italian Online Commodities Exchange (Borsa Merci Telematica Italiana – BMTI) is the online regulated market of the agricultural, agro-energetic, agri-food, fish products and logistics services.