Cairo – Egypt-based company M.O. Group, a manufacturer of foodstuffs like candies, chocolates and cookies, achieved a 20% growth in 2021 compared to the pandemic year of 2020. The company aims to maintain the same level of growth rates in 2022.
M.O. Group chair Hamad Al-Abraq said the Egyptian market was the least affected by the COVID-19 crisis, especially since the lockdown period didn’t go beyond March-April 2020 and the market started bouncing back by May, June and July that year.
Al-Abraq explained in an exclusive statement to ANBA that the growth rates reached in 2021 were good considering the challenges that the industry faced like rising raw material and international sea freight costs and a heavy competition in both local and global markets.
The businessman estimated that the company’s total exports fetched approximately USD 6 million, which accounts for 50% of the company’s yearly output, and that it exports to markets in Africa, the Gulf, Europe, North America as well as Venezuela in Latin America.
He clarified that exports are the primary source of income of the company ant that it is working to tip the trade balance in favor of Egypt, stressing that the reality has changed a great deal in the last five years as the trade balance has vastly improved.
Regarding the company’s projects for the African markets, Al-Abraq underscored that the African market is still underexplored by the countries across the world and the Egyptian product has many advantages sustaining its competing capacity, including proximity as well as trade agreements that allow the products to arrive without taxes.
The chairman explained that the African markets account for over 50% of the company’s total exports, which go to Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya, and that the company plans on expanding into the markets of Uganda, Gaban and Madagascar as well as West African markets like Senegal, Nigeria and Mauritania as well as South Africa.
He added that the company exports to Romania in the European Union and has exported to France, Belgium, Germany, United Kingdom, and United States, as well as Venezuela in Latin America.
Al-Abraq stressed that the company plans on expanding into the EU markets and Brazil in Latin America, underscoring that it follows an expansion and spread project for the capital turnover rate and not a high profit margin.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
