Blumberg Grain opens first aggregation center for preservation of harvested wheat in Egypt

US-based food security company Blumberg Grain has opened the first aggregation centre of its Shouna Development Project in Egypt.

The company is currently designing a food security system to preserve Egypt’s locally harvested wheat that is estimated to help the country save $200m annually in the first phase.

The company signed a contract worth $28m with Egypt last December to help it enhance its wheat storage facilities across 93 sites.

The first phase of the project, that is supported by the President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s Viva Egypt Fund, would involve the modernisation of 105 Shouna, once open air storage pits, with modern warehousing systems called the Blumberg Grain Aggregation Centers, that will help in the preservation of locally harvested wheat.

A statement from the company said that the project involves implementation of the latest food security technology in the country for screening, drying, cleaning, grading, and bagging of wheat, which will allow a processing capacity of 3.7 million metric tons of wheat annually, and create 750,000mt of new static storage capacity.

Blumberg Grain Middle East and Africa CEO David Blumberg said: "Blumberg Grain is helping advance the Egyptian Economic Development Strategy Towards 2030, which seeks to improve infrastructure, build a modern and democratic society and create jobs."

Egyptian minister of supply Dr Khaled Hanafy said: "This is a great achievement for the Egyptians, we are now moving towards a future with improved infrastructure which supports President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s vision to build a sustainable economy, which is open, inclusive, and transparent.

"Blumberg Grain has delivered a system that will transform our nation’s grain infrastructure and we look forward to the system being fully complete and integrated."