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jojoba: the holy grail of desert shrubs
with the decline in profitability of “white
gold,” some agriculturalists have turned to an entirely new
crop: jojoba (or, somewhat unimaginatively, “green gold”),
hailed by its producers as the miracle crop of egypt’s future.
jojoba is a low evergreen plant indigenous to the
americas. a resilient shrub, it thrives in hot, arid climates, and
requires very little in terms of water or maintenance. in the last
15 years, it was discovered that the small desert bush is ideally
suited to egypt’s climate and soil. and more importantly, the
plant’s seeds and extracts yield a seemingly endless array
of products and applications.
processing jojoba seeds yields a sap that is 60 percent
pure oil – chemically classified as a liquid wax – that
can be used towards a variety of industrial and pharmaceutical ends.
for example, jojoba oil is used to make ointments, inks, varnishes,
waxes, detergents, pharmaceuticals, resins and plastics; it can
be employed as an additive in motor, transmission and gear oils;
and it’s a good substitute for the oil of the sperm whale –
which is used in cosmetics as well as automatic-transmission lubricants.
according to one of the many websites dedicated to the myriad uses
of jojoba oil, it is also “a natural mimic” of the oil
secreted by human skin, so its application reportedly protects the
skin and slows the ageing process. it was even recently reported
that researchers at helwan university in cairo and the united arab
emirates university have been testing jojoba oil as a substitute
for diesel fuel, with promising results (the patent, however, appears
to have already been snapped up by an american company).
dr. nabil s. el mouguy is egypt’s authority
on fertilization, irrigation and oil extraction methods for jojoba.
he is also the sole national supplier of jojoba seedlings. his jojoba
farm, about 100 kilometers outside of cairo, is egypt’s pilot
project for the crop.
according to el mouguy, egypt produces about 10 tons
of jojoba oil annually – enough to satisfy the few companies
that manufacture pharmaceutical products with the oil. but none
of el mouguy’s production is exported, although the world market
demand for jojoba oil is about 200,000 tons (and that, el mouguy
pointed out, was “without knowledge of some of the new applications”).
total world production, meanwhile, is only about 10,000 tons.
on the international market, jojoba oil sells for
$10-20 per pound, depending on the quality. oil that is labeled
and packaged can sell for much more: a bottle of 100 cubic centimeters
usually retails for about $6. the main world buyers are germany
and japan.
the cultivation of jojoba, however, is no easy matter.
it takes time and investment, but can yield exponentially increasing
returns. the plants don’t start producing seeds until their
fourth year. until then, they need about 50-70 liters of water in
the summer and 10-30 liters in winter. by the fourth year, though,
one acre will produce 250 to 350 kilograms of seed. profits start
coming by around the eighth year, as mature plants (which at this
point can survive a year without being watered) will produce 800
to 1,200 kilograms of seed per acre. thus, according to el mouguy,
the average investment in jojoba farming is about £e 30,000
per hectare (not counting the cost of water and land) and the average
return is about $12,000.
while most of egypt’s jojoba cultivation is
currently is assiut (where it is overseen by the assiut governorate,
the ministry of defense and private businessmen), el mouguy explained
that jojoba could be planted anywhere “from alexandria to aswan.”
the only place it wouldn’t thrive would be the delta, he said,
because the plant requires well-drained, yellow soil, which the
delta doesn’t have.
el mouguy maintained that jojoba is a much more profitable
crop than either tobacco or cotton, yielding a much higher return
per cubic meter of water. in fact, el mouguy predicted, “there
will be a boom” of jojoba cultivation in egypt’s near
future. and if all phases of production – from oil extraction
to packaging – are done locally, the desert shrub could be
an extremely lucrative development for egypt’s agriculture
sector.
ursula lindsey
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the pasha’s ban reconsidered
egypt’s sole tobacco manufacturer and distributor eastern
company is working to persuade the government to allow tobacco
farming on egyptian soil, a practice outlawed more than a
century ago.
according to abdou haddad abdou, an eastern company investor
relations official, 19th-century egyptian ruler mohamed ali
pasha – himself a tobacconist – banned farmers from
growing tobacco in egypt so he could monopolize the market.
mohamed ali purportedly generated lucrative revenues through
tax and customs duties on imported tobacco, and successive
egyptian governments have maintained the ban – apparently
for the same reason. last year alone, the government –
which has a 66-percent stake in eastern – reeled in £e
3.5 billion from import duties on tobacco.
but with an uncompetitive currency and little leeway to increase
cigarette prices, the tobacco giant is looking for ways to
cut costs. eastern spends around $125 million each year importing
50,000 tons of tobacco of varying flavors and qualities from
africa, south east asia, india, malaysia, indonesia, latin
america and, most recently, bulgaria.
abdou said that producing one-third of this tobacco locally
– perhaps in the toshka valley – would reduce production
costs, generate more revenue and help expand exports, which
currently account for only 4 percent of annual company profits.
eastern already imports one-third of its tobacco duty-free
from african countries in the comesa zone.
but the government has resisted the proposal, arguing that
there isn’t enough agricultural land to spare. eastern,
however, is confident that state officials will be brought
around by the potential savings in hard currency and the chance
for thousands of new job opportunities.
in recent years, eastern has been “on the verge of making
losses,” abdou said, due to price hikes on imported tobacco
and packaging. at the same time, cigarette retail prices remain
low, with economy class cleopatras ranging in price from £e
1 to £e 2.25 per pack. the government, which sees cigarettes
as a strategic commodity like petroleum or bread, froze prices
in 1990, permitting only an £e 0.10 increase in price
in 1998. last year, a presidential decree established new
cigarette tax brackets that allowed eastern to raise prices
between £e 0.15 and £e 0.50 per box. but since
january’s currency devaluation, the company has been
feeling the pinch again.
still, eastern shouldn’t be too worried. its stock is
one of the most robust on the bourse, and, despite the prohibition
of tobacco advertising and new warning labels on cigarette
packs, consumption of eastern-brand cigarettes and shisha
tobacco has increased 9 percent annually over the last five
years (compared to 2-percent population growth). more egyptians
– including record numbers of young women – are
turning to cigarettes and shisha pipes as a way to “let
out their stress,” according to abdou.
meanwhile, the market share of foreign cigarettes –
like philip morris’ marlboros or british-american tobacco’s
dunhills, also manufactured by eastern – has decreased
from 15 percent two years ago to less than 8 percent today,
due to massive price hikes on foreign brands. a box of marlboros
now costs £e 6.50, £e 3 more than the premium
eastern matinee brand.
new players are still entering the scene, though. eastern
signed an agreement in june with jordan’s international
tobacco & cigarettes company to market its brands in egypt
– the first arab competition in the local cigarette market.
still, 83-year-old eastern looks warily to the future, as
the government bends to growing international pressure to
combat smoking. in may, 192 countries unanimously approved
a world health organization anti-smoking treaty. to decrease
its dependence on tobacco profits, eastern is dabbling in
other areas of investment, including import-export, real estate,
textiles, agriculture, food and pharmaceuticals. “we
are working to be ready for the day that smoking is banned,”
abdou said.
daliah merzaban
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