Closing event of EU funded project Support to Agricultural SMEs (SASME)
Dear Mr Zakaria, Associate Minister
Dear Mr Fabio Grazi, Head of the Agence Française de Development (AFD)
Dear Participants in the Programme,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Agriculture is a key policy area inside and outside the EU. More than a third of the EU budget is being spent on the Common Agricultural Policy. The main objectives are food security, food safety, the environment and rural development. We want healthy food and enough food, protect our nature and make sure that the rural country side is an attractive place to live.
The same is true here in Egypt and we are looking back to 20 years of close cooperation in the development of the agricultural sector and in key related areas like water management, food safety and quality, support to small holder farmers, building strong institutions, value chain competitiveness and export promotion through a number of activities like research, twinning, credit facilitation, training, study visits and exchange of good practices. In this we are guided by the Sustainable Agricultural Development Strategy towards 2030.
SASME builds on that wealth of acquired experience with the objectives of developing agricultural and aquacultural value chains, offering access to finances for SMEs and supporting banking institutions.
The EU has established a longstanding partnership with AFD, across many areas of cooperation including water, transport, agriculture and access to finance for SMEs. Our partner and co-funder in this project is AFD with a loan portfolio of € 30 million in addition to the EU € 21.5 million grant package. There are many other implementing partner and special thanks are deserved to all of them for their extraordinary work in the field and their contribution to Egypt’s development, and for their invaluable contribution in making this project a success.
The beauty of the project is that it combines access to finance with technical assistance in a way to guarantee complementarity between the different components, ensuring geographical coverage, bearing in mind the essential contribution of micro and SMEs in the agricultural economic development and taking into account cross-cutting issues such as gender. More than 21% of the participants are women entrepreneurs.
The credit line component has been fully disbursed, contributing to better access to finance to SMEs across Egypt while the guarantee scheme in form of grants has proven very much needed. With both components the leverage impact is well above the forecasted figure. This scheme has helped increasing the outreach of small farmers - without or with limited collateral - and agricultural projects based on business plans.
Among the results in aquaculture - a value chain with a high growth potential - SASME succeeded in the implementation of the first mobile fry collection unit, reducing the mortality of collected fry. This showed positive benefits for the environment and led to a considerable increase of revenues for the fish farmers. Another important achievement is the construction of the fish farm in KM21 in Alexandria.
The dairy value chain, selected for its productivity gains, benefitted of targeted training for farmers, milk collection centres, cheese factories and laboratories. The results are better knowledge of management issues, increased familiarity with best practices related to health and food quality, improved market capacities, value chain efficiency, as well as the supply of modern equipment for the laboratories.
The project was impacted by COVID-19 in the last year of implementation. However considerable efforts were made to meet the project targets as much as possible within adapted deadlines. This was possible thanks to the quick reaction from the parties and the Government’s strong engagement.
Even if the project is coming to an end now, we hope that the link between agricultural and financial sector - the core of the project - will be strengthened further, ensuring better quality of agriculture products, and stronger entrepreneurship and investment in the agricultural sector, for domestic and export markets.
The EU continues to support the development and modernisation of agriculture and to facilitate access to credit through food safety activities, the Joint Rural Development Programme, by promoting value chain development, improving irrigation efficiency, and supporting research and innovation. All these initiatives would not happen without the Government’s commitment and the strong willingness to transform and modernise the agricultural sector. The financial system has proven to respond to the demands of the small farmers, the micro and small enterprises and cooperatives who in turn hold a great potential for increasing productivity and employment, but still face difficulties in accessing credit, integrate in the market and generate better incomes and ultimately increase employment.
Again a big thank you to the representatives of the government, the farming community and the banks show are with us today to look back on very successful and innovative project we have carried out with our partner AFD. And we are all looking forward to a successful continuation of this cooperation and partnership for the benefit of all of our environment.
Thank you!