Saudi Zadna to execute 2 bln pounds flagship in Egypt

Saudi Arabia’s Zadna Company for Agricultural Investment and Real Estate Development seeks to set up a major project for the cultivation, production, and distribution of dates and olive in Egypt, with two billion Egyptian pounds ($112.4 million) in capital.

The company has already started planting palm trees over 1,000-acre land in Bahariya Oasis, Egyptian trade minister Tarek Kabil said in a statement on Thursday.

The company will also begin the construction of a plant for dates’ production, in addition to a number of storage refrigerators, Kabil added.

This came on the sidelines of the minister’s meeting with a delegation from Zadna Group headed by chairman Abdul Wahab Saleh Al Rajhi.

The ministry aims to improve dates’ production in Egypt and boost its competitiveness, Kabil said, pointing out that Egypt ranks the world’s first in terms of dates’ production by 18 percent of total production in the world.

The minister highlighted that the oasis produces more than 60,000 tonnes a year of semi-dry dates and other kinds from Siwa and Upper Egypt.