"New blueberry plantings in Egyptian greenhouses now number in the thousands of hectares"
Source: HD.com
Paco García, crop advisor on one of the major intensive farming projects in Faiyum, Egypt "New blueberry plantings in Egyptian greenhouses now number in the thousands of hectares" Blueberry is fast becoming one of the crops leading the expansion of intensive agriculture in Egypt, where large greenhouse complexes and new farming operations have been developed in recent years and are now beginning to incorporate berries into their production programs. The projected and planted hectares already run into the thousands across the various developments taking shape across the country, from Faiyum to areas near the Suez Canal and northern Egypt, forming a new origin that has caught the attention of the world's largest berry companies and international investors.
One place where this process can be observed firsthand is Faiyum, around 150 kilometres south of Cairo, where Paco García, a consultant at Hortalan, works as a crop advisor at a large agricultural complex covering around 2,000 hectares of new greenhouses. García currently manages around 20 hectares of blueberries within the project alongside 100 hectares of California-type peppers, all destined for export.
For that reason, new plantings rely primarily on hydroponic cultivation, using bags or pots filled with coco coir and perlite mixes, with the nutrient solution then acidified." "A blueberry plant can live for 10 to 15 years, so more and more growers are choosing to grow them in rigid pots, which last longer than a plastic growbag. As for temperature, Faiyum doesn't reach the 50 degrees you see in other desert areas, but it does get to 40–42 degrees in summer, which means shade screens and foggers are needed to manage radiation and internal conditions during the hottest periods." "This means that, compared to other crops, the establishment cost of a blueberry crop in the country's greenhouse projects can approach 100,000 euros per hectare." An investment designed to produce for more than a decade This capital intensity is one of the factors that sets blueberries apart from most annual vegetable crops, because growers cannot reassess each season as easily in terms of what to grow based on market conditions.
Why this matters: For operators, this is a water-management story. The useful signal is that direct substrate measurements can help cut drain loss materially without giving up yield or fruit quality, which is exactly the kind of controllable efficiency gain a facility can build on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does substrate sensing matter in free-drain strawberry systems?
Because drain percentage tells a grower what already happened, while substrate moisture and EC data show root-zone conditions directly. That makes it easier to cut water loss without guessing.
What is the operator takeaway from this trial?
If the thresholds are understood well enough, growers can reduce drain water materially while protecting yield and fruit quality, which makes sensing an operational tool instead of a reporting tool.
