Today the Ministry of Agriculture, USAID and H.J. Heinz inaugurated a Global Development Alliance involving USAID support for the production of processing tomatoes for Heinz’ facilities in Egypt. The alliance has been named “Four Thousand Tons Per Day: Developing the Processing Tomato Sector in Egypt”. It involves the expansion of Heinz/Egypt’s current tomato sourcing capacity from 750 metric tons (MT) per day to 4,000 MT in five years and the integration of up to 8,000 small farmers into the Heinz supply chain.
USAID will contribute $7 million to the partnership, while Heinz will purchase $6-7 million in tomatoes each year from Egyptian farmers in addition to providing over $1 million in technical assistance in Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), involving at least one full time specialist who will work directly with farmers.
It is estimated that the annual per capita incomes of farmers participating in this Global Development Alliance will increase by an average of $921. Up to 4,800 farmers are expected to participate by year three and another 3,200 farmers by year five, bringing the total number of participating farmers to 8,000 by year five. Sustainability is assured by the growing, worldwide demand for tomato-based products, the commitment of Heinz to source tomato products from Egypt, and fact that Egypt has a natural comparative advantage in the year round production of horticultural products.
