The customs taxes for Brazil are only 13 per cent of the garlic price

The Egyptian garlic season is in full swing and the Brazilian market could play a major role this season. One exporter state that the low customs taxes on Egyptian garlic will be the game-winner for their season.

Mohamed Shaaban, general manager of Garlic Egypt, states the earlier predictions of a high-quality garlic harvest were correct: “The harvest is very good this year, which helps us to offer great quality with very low competitive prices compared with other countries’ suppliers. We should have more than enough volume until August, but we prefer to load all the orders by April, May, and June, as the garlic has the quality during these three months. Our company’s harvested volume of garlic is around 3,000 tons from our own farms, but we also collect around 2,000 tons from small farmers every year.”

The eyes will mostly be on Brazil, Shaaban explains. He believes the customs taxes will play a big role in beating the competition. “There is good demand this year from the USA and Arabian countries. There are only limited orders from Europe, Canada, Taiwan, and Brazil, but we believe, thanks to our competitive prices, that the Brazilian market could order more volumes in the future. We have a lot of interest to load more containers to the Brazilian market this year, which is a huge market for Egyptian Garlic, as the customs taxes for Brazil are very low. Only 13 percent of the garlic price, while the Chinese and Spanish garlic is taxed at 35 percent. On top of that Argentinian garlic will end soon, around May the 5th, which means it’s our chance to pass more volumes towards Brazil.”

As the quality of the product has been good, the pressure is now on handling the product the right way, says Shaaban: “Our challenge this year is to prepare the best quality of the garlic by use of normal processing, so cutting, cleaning and calibrating well, all that has to be improved, combined with low prices supporting that. Another challenge is to export our garlic to Taiwan, as this market doesn’t accept a single mistake, as one piece with root or soil residue on it.”

“We expect a good season of good business for all Egyptian garlic suppliers this year, if they managed the quality processing well, which is also helping us for years to come. It will create larger demand every year, and low prices supporting our product, like in the current year.” Shaaban concludes.

The customs taxes for Brazil are only 13 per cent of the garlic price PDF