The Executive Director of the Regional Center For Food and Feed is Dr. Mohamed F. Emara. He was our host this morning for a tour of their Grain Inspection Lab. I remember touring the lab on my trip here with USDA back in 1999. RCFF operates three regional feed grain laboratories, one in the Giza headquarters, one at EI-Oekheila Port in Alexandria, and one in Port Said.
Dr. Emara says they’re responsible for quality control of ingredients imported from outside Egypt and produced inside the country. About 85 percent of the yellow corn they inspect is imported from the U.S. He says that since they started testing over 10 years ago, rejected shipments have decreased significantly which means Egypt is receiving better quality grain. The U.S. Grains Council was instrumental in helping get this lab established by providing technical assistance during the original development process.
You can listen to my interview with Dr. Emara below and watch a portion of our presentation in the video: