Food sales at Egyptian supermarkets and hypermarkets are expected to double from their 2011 levels by 2017, according to a report by the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service. Smaller supermarket outlets opened by Turkey’s BIM and home-grown hard discounter Kazyon represent a growing percentage of the modern supermarket retail channel in Egypt. They are expected to continue growing in the coming year, but even with recent growth in modern supermarkets, they still only account for less than 1% of the establishment and around 23% of the total sales. “The Egyptian retail food market is still dominated by small, privately held grocers, butchers, bakers, etc.; a situation that will not change very rapidly.”

BIM, Kazyon, Carrefour, and Ragab Sons led the market in terms of sales in 2016, according to the report. The report also suggests that “firms interested in exporting to the Egyptian market should begin by identifying an Egyptian importer or distributor, with whom they can build a relationship.”