Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi urged the speedy construction of 200 dairy assembly plants nationwide and ordered the doubling of allocations for the national veal project to EGP 2 billion (about $126.7 million), a presidential statement read.
Expanding on dairy assembly plants will reflect positively on people s health and economic conditions, El-Sisi added.
El-Sisi s statements came at a meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli, Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation El-Sayed El-Quseir and his deputy for livestock, fisheries and poultry Mostafa El-Sayad, and General Director of the National Service Products Organisation of the Armed Forces Mostafa Amin.
The president also urged supplying livestock owners with quality fodder and livestock strains known for their high productivity of meat.
Funding for the national veal project was doubled last month to EGP 1 billion, the presidency said in an earlier statement.
The veal project has been ongoing for the past four years. It targets providing good strains of imported livestock for fattening mainly to owners of small farms, in exchange for loans with five percent maximum interest.
The project aims at creating job opportunities, developing livestock, and providing red meat at fair prices. It seeks to decrease meat imports through fattening calves to provide more meat.
The project mainly targets youth, small farmers and women. Head of the Livestock and Poultry Development Sector at the Agriculture Ministry Tarek Soliman told the media 15,300 people have benefited from more than 183,000 calves in the project.
