Egypt grants exclusive F25 tomato hybrid rights to expand domestic seed production
Egypt’s New Egyptian Countryside Development Company has secured exclusive domestic rights to produce and market F25 hybrid tomato seed. Production will begin at the company’s model farm in Al-Moghra, with the government seeking to reduce reliance on imported vegetable seed.
Exclusive rights for an Egyptian tomato hybrid
Egypt’s New Egyptian Countryside Development Company and the Agricultural Research Center have signed an agreement to expand production of hybrid tomato seed in Al-Moghra, Matrouh Governorate. The project is intended to supply Egyptian growers with locally produced seed and reduce the country’s dependence on imports.
Under the agreement, the company receives the exclusive right to produce and market seed of the F25 tomato hybrid inside Egypt. Cultivation and production intensification will begin at the company’s model farm in Al-Moghra, followed by expansion in line with demand in the domestic market, according to Youm7, Mubasher and El Watan.
Research center to provide plants and supervision
The Agricultural Research Center will supply the planting material required for production. Its Production Activities Unit, part of the Horticulture Research Institute, will also provide continuous technical supervision throughout cultivation, seed production and packaging.
The work will follow the requirements of Egypt’s Central Administration for Seed Testing and Certification. The agreement covers compliance with approved quality specifications and the protection of intellectual property rights shared by the two parties. Agricultural Research Center President Adel Abdel Azim said an advisory team would monitor all production and packaging stages.
Greenhouse cultivation to start in Al-Moghra
New Egyptian Countryside Development Company Chairman and Managing Director Amr Abdel Wahab said the model farm already has the infrastructure and logistics needed to begin the planned greenhouse cultivation immediately. He described F25 as a high-yielding domestic hybrid suited to environmental conditions in Al-Moghra and other areas covered by the national land-development project.
The company is the principal developer of Egypt’s national project to reclaim and develop 1.5 million feddans. The government wants to use the project’s production capacity to commercialize agricultural research and increase the domestic availability of high-quality seed. A future expansion plan will be based on local demand for vegetable seed, but the publications did not disclose initial acreage, output targets, investment or a timetable for commercial sales.
Import substitution remains the central objective
Agriculture and Land Reclamation Minister Alaa Farouk said local production of high-quality seed is a ministry priority because it can limit import dependence and reduce the import bill. He also linked the agreement to the government’s policy of connecting public research institutions directly with national agricultural projects so that laboratory results can become commercially viable products.
The F25 launch forms part of Egypt’s national vegetable-seed production program. For growers and investors, the commercial test will be whether locally produced seed can deliver reliable yields, climatic adaptability and certified quality at scale. For seed suppliers, the exclusive domestic right gives one company control over the hybrid’s multiplication and sale, while the research center retains a central role in technical oversight and quality assurance.
