To Egypt, Trade Minister Zulhas Targets Export Market In African Continent Areas

Minister of Trade (Mendag) Zulkifli Hasan. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Trade Minister (Mendag) Zulkifli Hasan left for Cairo, Egypt on Saturday, May 13 to work on potential export markets in non-traditional countries, especially in the African continent.

"The African market, such as Egypt, is one of the potential non-traditional markets that must be worked on intensively. For this reason, we will meet a number of parties and increase trade cooperation with stakeholders in Egypt," Zulkifli said in a written statement, as reported by Antara.

This working visit is scheduled for three days, namely May 14-16, 2023. Zulkifli will hold a bilateral meeting with the Minister of Trade and Industry of Egypt to discuss the continuation of the cooperation between the two countries.

The two ministers are scheduled to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the Establishment of the Joint Trade Committee (JTC). In addition, the Trade Minister is also ready to meet Egyptian business actors who are members of the Egyptian Chamber of Commerce (Federation of Egypt) and other organizations.

Furthermore, Zulkifli is scheduled to open the activities of the Indonesia-Egypt Business Forum. This activity will bring together business actors of the two countries.

In this event, Zulkifli witnessed a number of MoU signings between business actors of the two countries, including the signing of the Indonesian-Egyptian trading fee MoU and the signing of the MoM between the two countries Kadin.

Not only that, the Trade Minister has been scheduled to meet the Indonesian diaspora in Egypt, as well as inaugurate the Indonesian promotional exhibition room at the Indonesian Embassy in Cairo and visit several companies in Egypt, namely the Indomie factory and one of Indonesia's coffee importers, namely the Zahret Coffee Factory El Bon El Brazili Co.

In the January-March 2023 period, Indonesia and Egypt's total trade was recorded at 432.9 million US dollars, down 12 percent compared to the same period the previous year which was recorded at 492.1 million US dollars. In this period, Indonesia's exports to Egypt were recorded at 379.4 million US dollars, while Indonesia's imports from Egypt were recorded at 53.5 million US dollars.

Meanwhile, in 2022, the total trade between the two countries was recorded at 1.57 billion US dollars. In that year, Indonesia's exports to Egypt were recorded at 1.3 billion US dollars and Indonesia's imports from Egypt were recorded at 226 million US dollars. Thus, Indonesia enjoyed a trade surplus of 1.1 billion US dollars.

Indonesia's main export products to Egypt include palm oil, coffee, coconut, threads and parts used for aparatus. Meanwhile, Indonesia's main imported commodities from Egypt are phosphate mineral fertilizers, dates, Arabs, pine, avocado, guava, mineral fertilizers, droplets from the extraction or purification of natural sugar and calcium phosphates.