CAIRO, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Egypt opened on Sunday the 33rd edition of the Sahara expo, the International Agricultural Exhibition for Africa and the Middle East, at the Egypt International Exhibition Center.

Under the auspices of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture and Land Reclamation, the four-day expo is sponsored by a number of Egyptian national banks and investors, gathering dozens of exhibitors mainly from Egypt, China, Russia, Italy, the Netherlands, Jordan and Lebanon.

"You might have noticed that the whole world has started to focus on the agriculture sector due to the belief in its importance especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic," Egyptian Agriculture Minister El-Sayed el-Quseir told a press conference after inaugurating the expo, noting that the sector is flexible and shock-absorbing with a fast growth rate.

Agriculture constitutes about 15 percent of Egypt's GDP and more than 25 percent of employment in the most populous Arab country, Quseir said, stressing that Egypt currently exports more than 350 kinds of agricultural products to over 150 countries across the world.

Exhibitors featured a variety of products related to the agricultural field, including chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, seeds, seedlings, as well as machinery, including tractors, loaders, irrigation systems and spare parts.

One of the Egyptian exhibitors, Univest Agri Systems, displayed part of a center-pivot irrigator with all its metal parts made in Egypt.

"We're the first purely Egyptian manufacturer of pivot irrigation systems in the country," said Moemen Zaki, vice president of Univest Agri Systems for product and system development.

"Our focus on the agricultural sector is very important because it coincides with the country's policy to save water and restructure the irrigation system," the Egyptian businessman told Xinhua.

Italian company Greenhas Group also featured some of its innovative fertilizers and bio-stimulants with an eye on expanding its business in the Middle East and North Africa.

Agostino Giambelli, marketing and sales director of the group, said it was the company's first time to take part in the Sahara expo, with the hope to support its distributors in Egypt.

"We also hope to operate our business in other African countries. With a research center, we are a producer of fertilizers and would like to promote through this platform our products and distributors in northern and eastern Africa," Giambelli told Xinhua.

Scheduled to end on Wednesday, Sahara 2021 expo attracted a lot of visitors, including farmers, experts, engineers and businessmen engaged in the agricultural field.

"Such exhibitions serve as a link between farmers and exhibitors because they gather all exhibitors under one roof, enabling us to know the latest products and agricultural material available in Egypt," said Hamdy Anwar, an old Egyptian agricultural engineer and farm owner.

Jordanian farm owner Jihad Al-Othman described the event as "a good and big exhibition."

"We came to the exhibition to see the development in the production of fertilizers and fodder, because we greatly need them in Jordan. We visit such exhibitions to develop our plantation and production," he said. Enditem

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