Egypt: Aquaponics grower focuses on social responsibility

With a strong conviction that Egypt is in dire need of modern forms of agriculture that help in water conservation, food security, and production of clean healthy food, entrepreneur Faris Farrag decided to ease the pressure on the country’s already stressed natural resources by setting up his enterprise, Bustan Aquaponics.

“It is my strong belief that there is massive potential for the expansion of aquaponics, both regionally and in other locations that have issues with food security and water,” Farrag says. “Many island nations (Puerto Rico as a good example) have a natural need for these types of systems as one of many different approaches to reduce their dependence on imported food without doing significant damage to the very finite resource of clean water.”

Having launched officially in 2014 (although it had already been operating since late 2011 as a pilot), Bustan, which currently only serves the Egypt market, is exploring various avenues of partnerships and private equity funding for expansion into other export markets. Farrag claims that Bustan is today the largest bayleaf salad producer in Egypt, and the company’s farm, which is located just outside Cairo, grows a number of other products on a seasonal basis - basil during the summer, kale, and other leafy greens during the cooler winter months, herbs such as rosemary, thyme, and mint, among other kinds of produce.

With sales channels that are both B2B and B2C in nature, Bustan counts many of the top gourmet restaurants and supermarkets in the country as customers, owing to its reputation in the market.

Read more at Entrepreneur (Sindhu Hariharan)