CAIRO, 7 January 2006 — The Ministry of Agriculture in Egypt yesterday rejected an Israeli request to rent Egyptian agricultural land in Sinai. Israeli authorities said in the request that they intend to use the land to plant different crops to be exported to Europe later.
It is not the first time Israel has asked Egypt to rent out plantations in the Sinai Peninsula, sources in the ministry told Arab News adding that such requests have always been rejected.
Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture last month also asked its counterpart in Egypt to send about 200 farmers to replace the Thai farmers at Netanya’s tomato farms saying that Egypt’s peasants are much cheaper than Thailand’s. Agricultural officials in Tel Aviv expressed their country’s need to rent more than 100,000 acres in Sinai to set up model farms for fruits and vegetables to be exported to Europe.
Amin Abaza, the new Egyptian minister of agriculture, stated that he is not aware of any Israeli requests saying that he has not received any official statements from his counterpart in Tel Aviv.
