Promoting Agricultural Value Chains
In the OIC Member Countries
77
Egyptian dairy products to be compatible with world market demands and at same time to be
competitive with imported dairy products in the local market (El Lateif Aita et al., 2012).
In 2014, the Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade issued a directive to establish a committee
responsible for developing a quality and food safety control system for the dairy sector to
ensure that international export standards can be met. The committee was also tasked to
establish a plan for the coordination and integration among private sector and government
bodies operating in the dairy sector.
In order to address hygiene related issues in the dairy sector, in the year 2001, the
Government also issued a decree to pasteurise all locally produced milk (El Lateif Aita et al.,
2012). However, implementation is a significant problem in the fragmented Egyptian
processing industry, particularly for small and medium-sized entities due to severe
infrastructural and capacity problems.
Standards seem to be significantly higher in the large-scale commercial dairy sector. Although
HACCP or ISO certification is neither required by Egyptian authorities nor for export,
recognised voluntary standards and systematic quality control systems are recommended by
importers and importing governments alike. This has led to increasing awareness and
resultant adoption rates of HACCP by large dairy companies in Egypt.
5.2.3 Infrastructure and logistics
In light of the milk sector’s heavy reliance on smallholder production and informal marketing,
logistical and infrastructural problems constitute a key impediment to the further
development of the sector. Lacking cold chains and refrigerated transport systems, combined
with poor knowledge on hygienic handling of raw milk from farm to factory, lead to high milk
spoilage rates (El Lateif Aita et al., 2012). Studies show that contamination of milk already
starts during the milking of cows due to unhygienic and improper practices (Hofi, 2011).
Smallholders in particular do not have access to pasteurisation and proper storage facilities.
This carries a high risk of bacterial contamination of raw milk subsequently consumed on the
informal market. Due to the resulting health risks, the government has recently sought to
reduce the amount of loosely sold milk. Efforts by the large-scale dairy industry to educate
consumers on the risks of raw milk and the benefits of processed milk aim at the same effect.
While the results of these campaigns have been positive in that processed milk and dairy
products have been gaining market share, further successes are considered to depend on the
strengthening of regulatory and monitoring bodies by the Government as well as support and
capacity building for small-scale and medium-sized milk producers (Oxford Business Group,
2012b).
However, not only raw milk but also processed dairy products, such as cheese, often exhibit
severe food safety issues, as much of the processing takes place at small enterprises that lack
adequate facilities and capacity. A recent study by Hofi (2011) shows that many dairy farms
transport milk directly to cheese factories in cans on open vehicles which increases the risk of
contamination and spoilage. Only modern dairy factories refuse un-chilled milk for processing
but the majority of processors neither employ good hygienic practices to minimise product
contamination nor test the bacteriological quality of the milk received. As about two thirds of
cheese factories operate without cooling facilities and 80 percent of them do not apply
pasteurisation, further contamination is likely to occur during processing (Hofi, 2011).