Egypt Proposes Geographical Indication for Ras Sedr Olive Oil

Summary

Efforts to develop olive farm­ing in Ras Sedr, Egypt have led to a pro­posal for a new geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tion (GI) for the local extra vir­gin olive oil, a cru­cial step in adding value to the prod­uct and open­ing new oppor­tu­ni­ties for grow­ers and com­mu­ni­ties. The new GI aims to high­light the unique qual­i­ties of olive oil from the region, with a work­shop held to define the tech­ni­cal and leg­isla­tive steps needed for its estab­lish­ment.

The efforts to fur­ther develop olive farm­ing in Ras Sedr, on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, have cul­mi­nated in a pro­posal for a new geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tion (GI) for the local extra vir­gin olive oil.

According to rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Desert Research Center, the Abu Suwayra Agricultural Cooperative and the South Sinai Agriculture Directorate, the new GI rep­re­sents a cru­cial step in adding value to olive oil pro­duced in the area and open­ing new oppor­tu­ni­ties for local grow­ers and com­mu­ni­ties.

The three enti­ties, experts and other stake­hold­ers, held a work­shop to define the next tech­ni­cal and leg­isla­tive steps needed for the estab­lish­ment of the new GI.

See Also:Egypt Aims for Significant Increase in Olive Oil Exports

GIs are intel­lec­tual prop­erty items rec­og­nized under the inter­na­tional TRIPS Agreement, which iden­ti­fies a prod­uct as orig­i­nat­ing from a spe­cific place with dis­tinct qual­i­ties and cul­ture that link it to its geo­graphic ori­gin.

A few years ago, Egypt reg­is­tered the Matrouh GI extra vir­gin olive oil, which comes from a region located in the north­west­ern area of the coun­try. The area is also at the core of a rad­i­cal olive farm­ing expan­sion project.

“The [Ras Sedr] project is part of a wider ini­tia­tive aimed at increas­ing aware­ness about the devel­op­ment of sus­tain­able pro­duc­tion for veg­etable oils in the area,” Hossam Shawky, direc­tor of the Desert Research Center, told Masrawy news.

According to Shawky, the project builds on the unique resources of South Sinai and the sig­nif­i­cant role that food pro­duc­tion plays in the local iden­tity.

Ras Sedr, located approx­i­mately 40 kilo­me­ters south of Suez on the Gulf of Suez, is a well-known tourist des­ti­na­tion.

Its vicin­ity and the nearby Abu Suwayra region sig­nif­i­cantly con­tribute to South Sinai olive pro­duc­tion.

A 2021 study found that local olive farms cover approx­i­mately 8,029 fed­dans (approx­i­mately 3,370 hectares). Their olive yield can eas­ily exceed 10,000 met­ric tons per annum.

In January, the South Sinai gov­ern­ment noted that the Ras Sedr region pro­duced 7,000 tons of olive oil in the 2024/25 crop year.

Most of the local pro­duc­tion goes to nearby olive presses. In 2023, fol­low­ing the tem­po­rary clo­sure of a tra­di­tional Abu Suwayra press, the South Sinai gov­er­norate inau­gu­rated a mod­ern olive oil mill in Ras Masala capa­ble of pro­cess­ing up to 80 tons of olives per day.

Meanwhile, other grow­ers trans­port their olives to the mod­ern milling facil­i­ties in Al-Arish, on the Mediterranean Sea coast in North Sinai, includ­ing one run by Wadi Sinai.

According to Mohamed Shata, Deputy Secretary to Agriculture in South Sinai, the most rel­e­vant olive cul­ti­vars grown in the region to pro­duce olive oil include Picual, Kalamata, and Maraki.

Some or all of the cul­ti­vars may be included in the local GI’s future guide­lines, as they will out­line the typ­i­cal local sources for Ras Sedr olive oil.

At the work­shop, held under the direc­tives of Alaa Farouk, Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Shawky out­lined the ongo­ing devel­op­ment of the lat­est on-field tech­nolo­gies.

According to local media out­let Akhbar el-Yom, sev­eral tech­nolo­gies for local agri­cul­ture were exam­ined, includ­ing sys­tems for mon­i­tor­ing the water resources and apply­ing smart irri­ga­tion sys­tems.

Other areas of inter­ven­tion are land degra­da­tion, sea­sonal agri­cul­ture and dis­ease diag­no­sis.

The work­shop con­cluded with a field trip to local farms, where par­tic­i­pants observed some of the sys­tems in action.

Although the exact date of the new GI’s offi­cial announce­ment is not yet known, the process for the Matrouh GI olive oil took approx­i­mately two years.

According to fig­ures released by the International Olive Council (IOC), Egypt has pro­duced an aver­age of 44,200 tons of olive oil annu­ally over the last five crop years. The IOC esti­mated that Egypt pro­duced 40,000 tons of olive oil in the 2024/25 crop year.