Egypt’s Agriculture Minister Alaa Farouk and Minister for Parliamentary and Legal Affairs Mahmoud Fawzy visited a fruit and vegetable packing cooperative in Bologna as part of a broader effort to explore Italy’s agricultural cooperative model.
The facility, established in 1973 by seven floriculture traders, has since evolved into a 167-member cooperative managing over 300 hectares of farmland in Santo Peninsola, focusing on produce cultivation and export.
The ministers reviewed quality control processes, high-tech farming methods, and supply chain practices. They praised the Italian model’s success in increasing farmer incomes, stabilizing prices, and boosting value-added production, urging Egyptian cooperatives to adopt similar strategies.
The visit falls under Egypt’s push to exchange agricultural expertise and enhance cooperation with Italy’s International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies of Bari (CIHEAM-Bari), in line with a recently signed MoU aimed at supporting sustainable development in Egypt’s rural sector.
