“We have helped change the way sweet potatoes are seen in Egypt”

Sweet Potato International has built Egypt’s first specialized platform linking licensed propagation material, North Carolina technology, professional nursery production, and European markets. This is according to Ihab Sharaf, founder and president of Intertrade Consultant and CEO of Sweet Potato International (SPI). He recounts how the company evolved through the crop’s value chain.

Egyptian sweet potato exports reached 355,069 tonnes in the 2024/2025 season, up 54.1 per cent from the previous season, according to Egypt’s General Organization for Export and Import Control. The European Union received 197,774 tonnes, or almost 56 per cent of the total. For Sharaf, this growth reflects a broader shift in the crop’s status.

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“Sweet potatoes were long treated as a low-priced, high-volume product,” Sharaf says. “Today, growers increasingly see them as a professional export crop with strong value when the variety, planting material, production and post-harvest process are properly managed. We have helped change the way sweet potatoes are seen in Egypt.”

Sharaf shares that he began his business activities in the United States in 2001 and established ITC’s Egyptian operation in 2014. The company first concentrated on conventional and organic sweet potato production and exports, but gradually expanded into the technical gaps that were limiting quality and consistency.

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Bringing North Carolina technology to Egypt
“Export quality is not created only in the packing station,” Sharaf states. “It starts with the mother plant and continues through multiplication, field management, harvesting, curing, washing, packing and shipping.”

“My experience in the United States introduced me to North Carolina’s specialized sweet potato industry, where growers work closely with universities, breeders, nurseries, machinery manufacturers and packers. SPI became the first Egyptian platform dedicated to transferring and adapting this technology as a complete system,” he adds.

The company introduced Egypt’s first commercial curing chambers based on NCSU technology in 2016, followed by the country’s first high-capacity sweet potato washing and processing line in 2022, Sharaf continues. It now represents Strickland Bros. Enterprises of North Carolina as its exclusive agent across the MENA region for specialized bedding, planting, vine management, harvesting, and packing machinery, supplying and servicing this equipment for large-scale growers, together with spare parts and full technical support. The company also works with Portugal-based NativaLand on licensed varieties and professional propagation material.

Sharaf: “We are proud to be the first and only entity bringing these specialized technologies together for the Egyptian sweet potato sector. Our achievement is building the bridge, investing in the infrastructure and making the technology practical for Egyptian growers and packers.”

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Egypt’s only licensed sweet potato nursery
SPI announced it reached its most important technical milestone in 2022, when its nursery became Egypt’s first and only professionally licensed nursery dedicated to sweet potato propagation.

The nursery imports certified foundation plants produced through professional clean-stock and in-vitro programs, then multiplies them under controlled procedures into traceable G1 propagation material. Its portfolio currently includes 11 commercial varieties across orange-, white- and purple-fleshed market segments.

“A strong crop begins with pure, healthy and correctly identified material,” Sharaf says. “For many years, growers had limited access to professional sweet potato propagation systems. We have now created that capability locally, with traceability from the imported foundation plant to the slips supplied to the farm.”

In 2026, SPI also became the first Egyptian company to export certified G1 sweet potato slips to the European Union, starting with Portugal. The company has since received inquiries from growers in Spain and Germany, in what Sharaf considers a major shift for Egypt. “We are already an important supplier of harvested roots. Now we can also serve European growers with professional propagation material. It places Egypt in a new position within the international sweet potato industry.”

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Supporting small-scale growers
Much of Egypt’s sweet potato production is concentrated in the Nile Delta, where many farmers cultivate only a few acres. Sharaf says this structure is one of the strongest reasons for investing in the crop.

“Small-scale farmers are one of Egypt’s greatest production capabilities,” he explains. “Sweet potatoes allow us to organize that capability, improve productivity and connect more families to professional markets. The impact goes beyond the farmer to workers, harvesting teams, transporters and packing-house employees. Each acre of sweet potatoes in the Nile Delta provides a total of 170 working days, supporting farmers’ families, daily laborers, and professional full-time workers.”

SPI supports growers with variety selection, propagation material, fertilization and irrigation programs, pest-management advice, harvest timing, and guidance on European residue requirements. The company has expanded its technical presence in Damietta and Kafr El Sheikh, created an online grower community, and organized the First annual Egyptian Sweet Potato Producers Conference: From Production to Export in Damietta.

“We utilise the farmer’s experience. We add certified material, specialized knowledge, and market information to it. The objective is to help growers achieve more consistent quality and obtain better value from the same hard work,” Sharaf states.

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From a product to an industry
ITC and SPI now coordinate propagation, commercial production, curing, packing and exports for both conventional and organic sweet potatoes. Sharaf describes the model as integrated but collaborative, relying on their own professional farms, independent growers, engineers, pack-houses, logistics providers and international technical partners.

“Our success is not only the volume we export,” he says. “It is the infrastructure we have built around the crop: professional plants, specialized machinery, curing, processing, technical support and direct market experience. These are the tools that allow an industry to grow.”

The next stage will be presented at Sahara Cairo in September 2026, where SPI will showcase its work with NativaLand and Strickland Bros., together with the development of its Egyptian nursery and European propagation program.

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“We are confident in what we have achieved. We introduced advanced cultivation techniques, modern machinery, and pure propagation materials for 11 commercial sweet potato varieties. We also established Egypt’s only licensed sweet potato nursery, opening access to the European market for high-quality G1 sweet potato propagation material.

The next goal is to make these capabilities available to a much larger number of producers and packers, positioning SPI not only as a reliable source of premium sweet potatoes and professional propagation materials, but also as a provider of the latest technologies in cultivation machinery, curing chambers, washing, and packing solutions for the local and European sweet potato industries,” Sharaf concludes.

For more information:
Ihab Sharaf
Sweet Potato International (part of ITC)
Tel: +20 101 242 8787
Email: [email protected]
www.sweetpotatointernational.com