Egyptian Countryside DevelopmentCo. is launching an EGP 25 bn project to connect the West Minya plain to the national electricity grid, the state-owned company said in a statement. The price tag covers the estimated cost of high-voltage stations and feeder lines.

Why it matters: We’re reading this part of a bid to transform the more than 1 mn feddan area from a land reclamation zone into an integrated agro-industrial hub.

SOUND SMART- The key here is that the project will deliver 500 MVA of capacity when fully built-out. MVA is a measurement for how much electricity the grid can deliver. Up to 50 MVA is sufficient for a large industrial facility — a small city would be 100-200 MVA. The 500 MVA upgrade here is enough to deliver power to processing plants, cold-storage facilities, packaging lines, and more. (Apologies to all of our engineer friends out there.)

The first of the investment’s two phases will see 100 MVA delivered to Southwest Minya and the surrounding area. The grid upgrade is part of a wider program that will see the company build-out roads, the telecom network, and renewable energy infrastructure.

If we’re reading this correctly, the investment in electricity infrastructure signals a step-change in Egyptian Countryside’s ambitions. For more than a decade, it’s been positioned as a 1.5 mn feddan land-reclamation project that would enhance food security at home while also giving our agricultural exports a boost.

By delivering industrial-scale power, the company could ultimately set itself up as a master-developer of an integrated agrifoods zone — and attract interest from private-sector operators interested in exporting agrifoods rather than produce. Absent real energy infrastructure, operators would be at the mercy of bespoke diesel and solar installations. That’s a non-starter for most.

What the future could look like: Think exports not of raw potatoes, but of much higher-margin flash-frozen french fries. Potatoes are a lower-value, lower-margin commodity often blocked from the European Union due to concerns over brown rot. Fries? They’re more valuable, higher margin and, in processed form, enjoy easier access to global markets.

Better still: Potatoes have a six-month export window to Europe. French fries? We can sell them there year-round. The investment in the electricity grid is what will make it possible for private-sector actors to capture the opportunity — it’s really difficult to imagine a bespoke solar / diesel power setup reliably powering the individual quick freezing lines necessary for energy-intensive flash freezing.

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