A delegation of Chinese plant quarantine officials, who are currently visiting Egypt, will continue their meetings with their Egyptian counterparts at the Ministry of Agriculture and demonstration tours to palm, grapes and citrus farms which started on Sunday to open Beijing markets for Egyptian fresh date products for the first time.

Dr. Ahmad Al-Attar, Head of Central Administration of Plant Quarantine, said that the Chinese delegation visited several areas which are famous for palm farming and producing Egyptian dates for export, especially el wady el gedid as well as Packaging and sorting stations.

 The Chinese delegation will also visit the Egyptian grape and citrus farms for evaluation and meeting the international exporting requirements.

 According to the Egyptian plan to develop the palm and date sector, they will increase the export of 38 thousand tons currently to 120 thousand tons per year during the next five years.

A report of the Ministry of Agriculture revealed that executive programs for developing Siwa Oasis are being carried out; pointing out that a training project for Egypt's date producers and factories is under way, according to signing a cooperation agreement with FAO.