PM — How foodtech is addressing food security challenges

Welcome to a surprisingly busy Monday afternoon as we wind down the last day of this first month of the year, ladies and gentlemen. We have plenty going on today, so let’s get right to it.

THE BIG STORIES TODAY-

#1- Egypt joins JPMorgan bond index: We’re officially back on JPMorgan’s GBI-EM Global Diversified Index, where 14 Egyptian bonds worth a combined USD 26 bn have now been added, giving Egypt a weight of around 1.85%, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said today (watch, runtime: 1:51). The bonds have also been added to the GBI-EM Broad Diversified Index, the GBI-AGG Diversified Index, and the JESG suite, making us one of only two countries in the Middle East and Africa to join the green bond index (alongside South Africa), Maait noted. Our addition to the index is a strong reflection of international investor confidence in Egypt and its fundamentals, with 90% of surveyed investors voting for our inclusion, the minister said.

The inclusion is a “milestone” for Egypt’s debt management efforts and debt strategy, which focuses on “elongating and extending our debt profile,” Vice Minister of Finance Ahmed Kouchouk said (watch, runtime: 2:07). Having our bonds on the index will also attract more international investors, driving up demand for government securities and helping Egypt secure the lowest costs, Kouchouk said.

Our inclusion, which comes after three years of consultations with JPMorgan, was contingent on us meeting several requirements, including reshaping the yield curve, increasing the average issuance size to USD 7 bn, and streamlining some processes related to taxation, Advisor to the Vice Minister of Finance Nevine Mansour said (watch, runtime: 1:46).

#2- Egypt ups 2021-2022 growth forecast to 6%: The Planning Ministry has revised upwards its FY2021-2022 growth forecast for the Egyptian economy to 6%, from 5.6% previously, Minister Hala El Said tells Bloomberg Asharq.

#3- Social commerce startup Brimore closed a USD 25 mn series A round led by the International Finance Corporation and Silicon Valley VC Endure Capital, the company said in a statement (pdf). Brimore plans to use the funding to grow its network of sellers and tap into two new markets next year.

^^ We’ll have more on these stories in tomorrow’s edition of EnterpriseAM.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• Privatization program to resume in March -Maait: We can expect more state-owned companies to offer shares on the EGX in the coming weeks, according to Finance Minister Mohamed Maait, who said yesterday that the state privatization program will resume in March.
• Another round of green bonds: The Finance Ministry is looking to take to the green bond market for a second time with another USD 750 mn issuance, with consultations still ongoing regarding the timing of the sale.
• Is it about to get easier to register your home? The House Legislative Committee yesterday gave the nod to amendments to the Real Estate Registry Act, which aim to streamline registry procedures by significantly reducing the number of required documents, digitizing parts of the procedure, and putting a time ceiling on the entire process.

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Rejoice, commuters — your Uber ride is getting cheaper: Uber will change its pricing in Cairo starting today for UberX rides, lowering the app’s fees to EGP 2.80 per km traveled, from EGP 3.05, while its time fees are now going to be set at EGP 0.42 per minute from the previous EGP 0.45, according to an email sent out to users. The base fare will remain fixed at EGP 8 while the minimum fare will also remain at EGP 13. The ride-hailing company said the decrease in prices comes as part of its mission of “facilitating access to convenient, reliable and affordable rides for anyone, anywhere, and at any time.” The move comes shortly after Chinese ride-sharing app DiDi started operating in Cairo earlier this month.

HAPPENING NOW- The possibility of Qatar stepping in to resolve the looming energy crisis in Europe is making headway today as Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani sits down with US President Joe Biden at the White House, according to a statement. Doha — the world’s second-biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas — has previously signaled it would not be able to ramp up its output, given it’s already producing at full capacity under contract to Asia, Bloomberg notes. Europe receives almost 40% of its natural gas from Russia, which reduced its exports to Europe by 25% in 4Q2021, and could further limit or entirely suspend its gas supplies should an open conflict with Ukraine and ensuing sanctions materialize.

The energy crisis and falling natural gas demand in Europe is putting a serious dent in global demand, with the International Energy Agency predicting in its quarterly gas report that global demand for gas will slow to 0.9% after rising 4.7% last year. Demand in Europe is expected to fall as users switch to coal, expand the use of renewables, or cut back on fuel use altogether.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD- You guessed it — it’s still the Ukraine standoff. The US is now considering personal sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “inner circle,” including family members and individuals who “play a role in government decision making or are at a minimum complicit in the Kremlin’s destabilizing behavior,” the Financial Times reports, citing senior Biden administration officials. This comes as the US and Russia are due for somewhat of a showdown at the UN Security Council today over Moscow’s threatened invasion of Ukraine. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times have the story.

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OPEC+ will meet this Wednesday, 2 February, when the cartel is expected to agree to another gradual oil production increase. Planned production increases by the cartel have so far failed to meet the recovery in demand as several member countries struggle to up their output. The tightening of the oil market has pushed prices to a seven-year high this month.

The Central Bank of Egypt will hold its first policy meeting of 2022 on Thursday, where it is widely expected to hold rates steady, according to our regular interest rate poll. All analysts we surveyed expect Egypt to maintain the current rates for a while longer, as they anticipate our rates continuing to attract portfolio inflows even amid Fed tightening and global inflationary pressures.

January PMI figures for Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are also due out on Thursday.

The US embassy in Cairo is now accepting applications for Cultural Property Agreement Implementation projects that would help Egypt protect its cultural property from looting, theft, and illicit trafficking. The guidelines state that concept notes should be sent in by this Thursday, 3 February, while shortlisted applicants will need to submit full applications by 4 May. Each project will receive USD 50-100k, with around USD 500k earmarked for the entire program.

Also from the embassy: Women can now apply to join Fortune Global Women's Mentoring Program which will take place from 8-28 May 2022. The program aims to bring emerging women leaders from around the world to the US to meet and learn from the Fortune Most Powerful Women community which includes executive women mentors from companies such as Accenture, Johnson & Johnson, and Aetna. The deadline to apply for the program is 8 February. You can begin your application by signing up here.

The Cairo International Book Fair continues today at the Egypt International Exhibition Center. The event runs through to 7 February.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- It’s getting a touch warmer: The mercury will rise to 18°C during the day tomorrow before falling to 9°C at night, according to our favorite weather app.

How are fossil fuel giants going to cope with the switch to green energy? Flooding emerging economies with plastic: The fossil fuel industry is leaning into plastic production to stay afloat over the next several years as the energy transition drives down demand for oil and gas, CNBC reports, which will help petrochemicals account for over around half of oil demand growth by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency. Petrochemicals are used to produce plastic, which makes plastic production “the Plan B for the fossil fuel industry,” says the head of nonprofit advocacy group Beyond Plastics. The focus on ramping up plastic comes with its own host of environmental issues, with only 9% of all plastic waste produced being recycled. Output is now being directed towards emerging economies in Africa and Asia, where many countries simply don’t have the infrastructure to recycle plastic.

Chips sales could double to USD 1 tn in less than a decade, fueled by the pandemic’s acceleration of digitalization, writes the Wall Street Journal. Chipmakers’ collective annual sales rose over USD 500 bn for the first time in 2021 — beating even the global smartphone industry. Prolonged supply shortages are expected to push revenues up an additional 9% this year and executives from companies such as GlobalFoundries, Samsung, and Intel have all expressed optimism for the industry going forward.

However, skeptics remain, worrying that the bind of the semiconductor industry could push companies to overbuy chip stocks and then pause purchases, leading to a glut in the market that could force semiconductor prices downwards. Massive investments poured into expanding the industry could also lead to overexaggerated supply once production factories come online during the decade, they added.

Spotify is doing some damage control on the Joe Rogan controversy, adding content advisory warnings to podcasts that discuss covid-19 in an attempt to be responsible in the media they release during the pandemic, according to a statement from CEO Daniel Ek. The podcaster also apologized for the episodes that caused a stir for spreading misinformation about covid and vaccines, reports the Wall Street Journal. Rogan said the show has grown “out of control” and that he will aim to be more balanced concerning the controversial aspect of guests and topics he has on the show.

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Huda El Mufti and Sharnouby play out a modern, messy love story in Far2 Khebra: The film was released on Shahid over the weekend and stars Huda El Mufti and Mohamed El Sharnouby. The latter plays Nagy, a shy, quiet, and defeatist personality who is complacent about anything that comes his way. That is until Salma (played by El Mufti) comes into the picture and takes Nagy on her adventures and shows him a new way of life. It’s a modern romance, however, filled with twists and turns as the two lovers try to get over each other’s past, lies, and stark differences — and timing is not on their side. As a subplot, Nagy’s parents (played by the late Dalal Abdelaziz and Mahmoud Al Bezzawy) are trying to get a divorce in a hilarious depiction of Egyptian parents. Taha El Dessouky is also in the film as Nagy’s best friend and we have to say, he never fails to make us laugh.

⚽ An exciting day in the Egyptian League Cup: Today we have three matches taking place at 5pm that could largely determine the teams qualifying to the next round from Groups A and B. Future meets with Al Ittihad in a match where the latter is counting on a victory in order to try to secure the fourth seat to the next round as the highest scorer, but is not necessarily of great importance to Future as it is the only team in the cup that secured a place in the semi-finals. The second match brings together El Mokawloon and Smouha, with the contractor’s football team also needing a ‘W’ to qualify, especially since the third match is between Ismaili and El Gouna, both of whom are next in the standings and can top the group instead.

Need a reminder of the tournament system? The League Cup includes all 18 Premier League clubs, divided into three groups, each comprising six teams. The first of each group qualifies directly to the semi-finals, in addition to the club with the most points after the top three.

Over in the French Cup, Paris Saint-Germain will face Nice in the last round of 16 matches at 10:15pm.

Mahmoud Trezeguet is headed to Turkey to join İstanbul Başakşehir after the team signed the midfielder on loan from Aston Villa, according to Turkish press reports picked up by Kingfut. Trezeguet’s spot in Aston Villa was put in jeopardy after the club signed Philippe Coutinho earlier this month. The Egyptian footballer had been off the pitch for a while, suffering from a knee injury that saw him play only 10 minutes during all of last season. Trezeguet had previously played in the Turkish Super Lig, having represented Kasimpasa for two seasons.

Also from the Premier League transfer market: Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubamyang might be playing in a Barcelona jersey until the summer if rumors of a possible loan agreement between the two clubs prove true.

It is worth noting that the Premier League’s winter transfer market will close at 11 pm today, so we expect to hear a flurry of last-minute transfer news.

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Attend the live audiovisual performance titled Shadow of the Wall today or tomorrow at the Mausoleum of Fatima Khatun. The performance tells a story by Chirine El Ansary about the legends and history of Cairo’s streets. Meanwhile, Agnes Michalczyk entangles the narrative with mesmerizing visuals that will be projected on the wall to create the audiovisual experience. The performances start at 8pm.

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Video has become an essential marketing tool in a virtual world: The Visual Sale by Marcus Sheridan and Tyler Lessard works as a guide on how to create a culture of video for your business. Consumers are no longer satisfied with just reading about a product or service — they need to see it, the pair argue. However, many business owners don’t know how to start or what videos should look like for their specific business. The book starts by identifying how different businesses need different videos to have a financial gain by giving examples, case studies, and checklists to follow. It then goes into how the medium has the ability to build trust with consumers, leading to an improvement in sales numbers, marketing strategy, and overall customer experience.

The EGX30 rose 0.3% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 647 mn (41.5% below the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is down 3.8% YTD.

In the green: TMG Holding (+8.6%), Qalaa Holdings (+5.2%) and Madinet Nasr Holding (+4.0%).

In the red: CIRA (-3.6%), Fawry (-1.8%) and CIB (-1.0%).

MARKET NEWS- Who’s in and who’s out of the EGX30: E-Finance, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Egypt, Orascom Construction, and the Housing and Development Bank have all been included in the EGX30 after the the bourse finished its semi-annual review of indices today. Speed Medical, Egyptian for Tourism, Aspire Capital and Gadwa for Industrial Development were among the companies that were dropped from the index, according to a bourse statement (pdf).

Foodtech is transforming how we grow, buy and consume food, with food innovators working to address food security challenges posed by rising prices of transport and fertilizers, unpredictable weather conditions and supply chain snarls. Foodtech — an umbrella term used to refer to agrotech, food science, delivery and supply chain automation, and food service innovation — predates the current challenges in the food industry, and includes all the tech and innovation going into making food more sustainable, nutritious and easy to grow, as well as improving accessibility to produce and food.

How is agrotech changing food? Agrotechnology, or agricultural disruption through solutions to improve farming output, yield and efficiency using tech like drones, sensors, and farm management software, focuses primarily on urban farming and developing new farm products. It also includes tech-assisted farming, which includes techniques geared toward improving water management and irrigation systems, utilizing plant and soil analytics and predictive analytics to forecast weather, as well as utilizing the Internet of Things (IoT) to measure plant health and using drones and robots to monitor and pick crops.

In Egypt, most agrotech innovation in the private sector is in the fields of indoor and vertical farming as well as hydroponics. Agrotech startup Tulima, which has been operating its vertical farms for six months and plans to bring its products to the market in 2Q2022, utilizes vertical farming to improve yields while reducing its footprint, controlling pests, and optimizing water use. CEO Mohamed Salama tells us that taking preventative measures to avoid disease and pest transmission through biosecurity is key to avoiding having to use pesticides at all — a challenge that many agricultural exporters have. Egyptian agricultural exports have struggled in the past with import bans from key markets such as Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Libya, over high residual pesticide levels.

And the government is pushing to update irrigation systems to reduce water use. In November, the Central Bank of Egypt announced a multi-bn EGP lending program to equip 4 mn feddans of agricultural land with modern irrigation systems over three years — the latest in a series of ongoing efforts by the government to promote modern irrigation methods and cultivate non-water-intensive crops to overcome water leakage in agriculture.

Agrotech is also making headway in wheat storage: Last year, the government and IBM teamed up to automate 22 wheat silos to increase supply chain efficiency in the first effort we’ve seen to introduce agrotech to the sector. The project will equip the silos with AI-powered software to automate and provide real-time data on processes relating to shipping, transport, storage and supply of the wheat silos.

The way we eat is constantly evolving, but nutrigenomics could be entirely revolutionary. In 1960, just 3% of the world’s population suffered from food allergies and intolerances — a number that rose to almost 7% in 2018. Nutrigenomics, or the study of how food and food constituents affect gene expression, might be the biggest game changer for a world population that is increasingly obsessed with eating healthy. Nutrigenomics, which makes nutritional recommendations based on individuals’ unique biomarkers, is likely to transform the way that we make choices about food and drink.

Alternative protein products (think: fake and plant-based meat) are making bank. One of the biggest trends in food is food entrepreneurs looking to offset agriculture — particularly livestock’s — carbon footprint and accommodate increasingly health-conscious diets with plant-based or lab-grown alternatives. There are two main categories of alternative protein products: Lab-grown cultured meat, which is grown in bioreactors from animal cells (although the jury is still out on whether lab-grown meat is halal), and plant-based meat (e.g. lentil or pea-protein burgers), and both are used mostly as a substitute to ground beef or sausages. Catering to vegetarians / vegans as well as “flexitarians” (flexible vegetarians) or vegan-aspirants looking to adopt plant-based diets, the market for plant-based meats was valued at USD 6.67 bn in 2020 and is expected to reach c.USD 16.7 bn by 2026.

And it’s not just hummus-loving hipsters who are getting on board the alt-protein train. Distributor of plant-based food and beverages Quanta has been supplying beverage products since 2009 and plant-based products to the food service industry and retail since 2019. CEO Mohamed Hussein, who cofounded Quanta with Nadder and Amir Montassir, tells us that, while the business initially launched around non-dairy milk, the appetite for plant-based meat has grown enough that the company was prompted to start its own plant-based meat and dairy line, The Good Earth, last year. Hussein tells us that one of the biggest challenges is facing off against a meat industry that continues to be heavily subsidized in Egypt, as well as a lack of data on the local market. He tells us that, although plant-based meat alternatives are pricier, they tend to be less subject to price volatility than other food products.

The uptake for plant-based meat in Egypt is growing steadily. The Good Earth is hardly the first local plant-based meat alternative, which makes sense given the lengthy vegan fasting season observed by many Copts in Egypt (210 days a year). Local labels like KAJU, founded in 2015, and El Torr, offer vegan and no-dairy food, often relying heavily on protein-intensive local ingredients like fava beans, beetroot, and mushrooms. Soraya Abouleish, co-founder of natural food grocer RDNA, tells us that demand for vegan products is growing, with one of the biggest challenges for vegans being sourcing vegan produce all from one place.

Plant-based meat alternatives are (mostly) healthier. While one study found that plant-based meat substitutes resulted in better gut health, a Stanford Medicine study found that swapping up two servings of red meat for plant-based meat lowered some cardiovascular risk factors in participants — although the study compared meat burgers to plant-based burgers, not burgers to real plant food. It also found that alternatives contained “relatively high levels of saturated fat and added sodium and are considered highly processed foods,” all of which are factors that can contribute to cardiovascular disease risk.

In the restaurant business, cloud kitchens are promising to be game changers. Cloud kitchens or professional cooking facilities without storefronts that are set up to prepare delivery-only meals, have also been gaining traction in Egypt as restaurants look to expand their offerings without overextending their footprint. Ahmed Osman, co-founder of the kitchen-as-a-service cloud kitchen The Food Lab tells us that though the “virtual restaurant” model is negligible in Egypt, with most restaurants securing at least one brick-and-mortar location, virtual kitchens are stepping in to assist restaurants serve new urban communities.

And AI promises to disrupt good old-fashioned F&B. Osman tells us that, while Egyptian restaurateurs “cook with love,” their businesses aren’t necessarily profitable because they don’t have access to data to make better decisions. The Food Lab, which handles end-to-end operations, from sourcing ingredients to food preparation to delivery, is more than just a kitchen, though, with big ambitions to prolong the life cycle of restaurants and change the mindset of restaurant owners by promoting data-driven decision making in the food business.