Egypt – Marketing Information Project
Connecting Farmers to Marketing Information through Public Media
When the ACDI/VOCA Marketing Information Project (MIP) first started in 1994, the Egyptian government had recently lifted restrictions on fruit and vegetable marketing. However, farmers were still very much dependent on traditional, inefficient sources of marketing information. MIP was the first project of its kind in Egypt, making free-market fruit and vegetable prices available through public media and providing training to producers, extension workers and others on the use of this marketing information. Ended in 1999, with five full phases of funding support from the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MOALR), MIP improved the transparency and efficiency of the fruit and vegetable markets in Egypt, through the dissemination of market prices and information through the public media.
In Egypt, the Marketing Information Project increased horticultural marketing efficiency through the maintenance of a sustainable horticultural market information service. The project made wholesale market prices available through television, radio and newspapers, and trained farmers in the use of this marketing information.
Daily telecasts, broadcasts and newspaper coverage of accurate and timely “same-day” prices rivaled the quality and reliability of daily market news reports in the United States. Egyptian exporters used the project’s information to negotiate equitable and export-competitive prices with wholesalers. The price information via the public media, combined with the price trend data published in the project’s monthly market bulletin, was a powerful factor in increasing marketing efficiency. Each month, 1,000 copies of the bulletin were distributed. These were used by health extension agents (HEAs) in extension training in helping farmers develop marketing strategies. Surveys showed awareness of MIP’s price information-through TV, radio or newspapers—among about 90 percent of farmers, who were learning the skills to interpret this information.
MIP V built on this network of price information dissemination to improve the efficiency of horticultural marketing: extensive training for HEAs and farmers in postharvest best practices was provided to improve the HEAs’ technical effectiveness and increase farmers’ incomes by ensuring that more of their produce reached the market in good condition. Over 670 HEAs in 11governorates throughout Upper Egypt and the Delta were trained as post-harvest specialists. They provided training to 25,500 farmers, 90 percent of whom were smallholders.
Sustainability was built into the project from the outset: the professional project staff and the wholesale market surveyors were MOALR employees and highly experienced in all operational aspects of the marketing information system. In addition, the MIP-trained HEAs incorporated marketing information into their regular programs.
MIP V, the fifth phases of MIP, introduced another “first” for Egypt: the conducting of economic studies for 24 horticultural crops that document the increase in income to farmers as a result of using the improved postharvest practices promoted by the project. These studies revealed that there has been an average increase of 24 percent in farmer income for each ton of produce (both fruits and vegetables) cultivated using the improved practices.
MIP V continued the effective features of the previous phases. The collection and dissemination of wholesale market prices for key crops (with at least a 95 percent rate of accuracy) for farmers, middlemen, investors and exporters continued to be provided. This enabled farmers to make informed crop management and marketing decisions. The training in postharvest best practices also continued and expanded to three additional governorates and will serve an additional 170 HEAs (for a total of 840 HEAs) and 9,000 farmers (for a total of 33,350 farmers). This enabled farmers to cut waste and improve their revenues by using more cost-effective harvesting and postharvest methods, including packing, packaging and transportation.
In addition to expanding geographic and training coverage, the MIP extension featured the introduction of a new research component. MIP collaborated with MOALR’s Horticultural Research Institute to develop, test and introduce improved packing materials and reusable containers. These enabled a significantly higher percentage of produce to reach the market in prime condition, thus considerably increasing farmers’ income while making more quality produce available for export.
