Egypt's Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation has recently announced its ambitious plan to plant 100 million olive trees by 2022 by offering many land plots to investors. Though Egypt is the world's second-largest exporter of table olives, the government is now fighting tooth and nail to boost the olive oil production, considering that Egypt is a major importer of olive oil.
On April 23, Agriculture Minister Ezz El Din Abu Steit announced Egypt's strategy to increase its productivity of oil varieties in the coming years with the key aim of extracting olive oil. Abu Steit, who is also the president of the International Olive Council (IOC), said the country will allocate more plots for the cultivation of varieties of olives.