Alsayed Elkosayer,Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, received a report from Dr. Ahmed El-Attar, Head of Egyptian Plant Quarantine, showed the amount of potatoes that Egypt exported during the current export season 2020/2021 until now.
According to the report, European Union countries imported 144,620, Arab countries 114,991 and some other foreign countries 7,672 while, Egyptain potato exports to Russia was doubled this year and have reached about 119,288 tons.
In a related context, Dr. Naglaa Balabel, director of the Potato Brown Rot Project (PBRP), confirmed that, in the framework of the directions of the Minister of Agriculture, the project’s laboratories works 7 days /24 hr to carry out the laboratory tests for exported or imported potatoes. PBRP labs is considered to be the pioneer, unique and best diagnostic laboratory for brown rot disease in Egypt in terms of equipment, performance level, experience of diagnosis team and Pest Free Area establishment.
Besides that, PBRP laboratories are certified laboratories for ISO 17025:2017 in detection of Ralstonia solanacearum serologically and molecularly.
Starting from season 2020-2021 PBRP apply GIS (Geographic Information System) and remote sensing to monitor harvesting and productivity of all the PFA fields besides monitoring and pre-inspect infection by potato brown rot and all over plant health. In case of any deterioration for the crop the project, communicate immediately with the exporter to inform him with the problem. Beside that, the project will lunch Exporters Service Portal which introduces many services to the exporters in order to the production of high quality potatoes. Everyone praised PBRP services and efforts.
