VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia received an appreciation as the largest importer of dates from Egypt, which was marked by the receipt of an award from Governor of Marsa Matrouh Province, Major General Khaled Shuaib to the Indonesian Ambassador to Egypt Lutfi Rauf on the side-lines of the 5th Egyptian Date Palm Festival 2022 in Siwa City, Egypt last Sunday (23/1).

Governor Major General Khaled Shuaib expressed his high appreciation for the trust of the largest importers of Egyptian dates, especially importers from Indonesia, Morocco, and Malaysia. He also said that the award was given as an appreciation to the Indonesian Embassy in Cairo, which has promoted Egyptian dates to Indonesian citizens and provided assistance to Egyptian companies to conduct business communications with importers in Indonesia.

In his remarks, Indonesian Ambassador to Egypt, Lutfi Rauf in Egypt, explained that the total trade between Indonesia and Egypt during the Covid-19 pandemic experienced an encouraging increase. In the period January to November 2021, it reached US$1.63 billion, up 53.52 percent when compared to the same period 2020. The main imported products from Egypt include rock phosphate, dates, molasses, citrus oranges, and potatoes.

Indonesia is included in the top three largest date importing countries from Egypt. According to Egyptian statistical data, in the period January - September 2021, the exports of Egyptian dates to Indonesia reached a value of US$10.34 million with a market share of 17.89 percent of the total exports of Egyptian dates worldwide.

Ambassador Lutfi added that research and development collaboration are in need between Indonesian-Egyptian researchers and academics in seeing the benefits of dates. This has been done by the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Muslim Indonesia (UMI) in collaboration with the date management institution in Madinah KSA. They investigated the efficacy of Aiwa dates which can reduce the risk of hypertension in pregnancy and suppress menopause with very good results. The 2022 date festival held from 22 to 24 January 2022 was attended by more than 200 date producers from Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Mauritania, and Tunisia.