Grova hands Hassan Allam Construction a second USD 500 mn EastHills contract

Grova Developments awarded Hassan Allam Construction (HAC) an additional USD 500 mn in construction works for Phase II of Grova EastHills, adding 334 acres to push the East Cairo community past 600 acres across two phases, according to a press release (pdf). Phase I — 305 feddans in New Cairo, backed by a USD 550 mn turnkey contract — is fully sold out, which the group cites as the driver of the expansion and the reason construction is being accelerated.

IN CONTEXT- Phase II adds new villa typologies across a wider size range, an enlarged main clubhouse that stays residents-only, and a new casual all-day retail destination, alongside the existing premium zone of fine dining, high-end retail, and offices. It’s the Egypt leg of the vertically integrated model Grova has been running, now also at West Cairo’s Grova Westfields, Riyadh’s Noor Khuzam, and Oman’s Madinat Al Irfan, and it lifts HAC’s combined EastHills take past USD 1 bn.

Grain gain

The government plans to raise the winter season procurement price for local wheat to EGP 2.65k per ardeb (150 kg), up 6% from EGP 2.5k, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said at the close of Egypt Forum 2026. The same package launches a winter 2026/27 support initiative to prepare 1 mn feddans of holdings smaller than two feddans for wheat, using mechanization units from Agriculture Ministry bodies handling land improvement and mechanization, with service costs cut by 50%.

IN CONTEXT- The increase extends the state’s premium pricing policy. Prices were set at EGP 2.25k-2.35k an ardeb (roughly USD 313-327 per ton) before the 2025 sowing season, then raised in April 2026 to EGP 2.5k by Supply Minister Sherif Farouk as regional instability lifted import costs, leaving the state paying roughly USD 50 a ton above international prices. The incentive moved farmers. The state bought just over 5 mn tons of local wheat in the 2026 season (April to August) — beating its 5 mn target and up about 30% from 4 mn tons in 2025 — on a record 3.7 mn feddans of harvested area, up from 3.1 mn a year earlier.

Pass the tapas

The Alexandria Port Authority proposed a joint MoU with the Port of Barcelona to formalize cooperation on maritime transport, trade, and logistics, the authority said in a statement. The authority hosted a Spanish delegation that included the Port of Barcelona, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and Mercabarna, the city’s wholesale food market, alongside the Egyptian Chamber of Commerce in Alexandria. Talks covered joint logistics investment, port management expertise, and ways to move Egyptian exports faster into European markets, building on cooperation that already exists between the two ports.

Why it matters: Spain is one of the fastest-growing markets for Egyptian goods — the two countries traded about EUR 3.3 bn in 2025, with the Spanish trade office in Cairo targeting EUR 4 bn. Egyptian exports to Spain climbed 25.5% to EUR 939 mn in 1H 2026, and food exports more than doubled to EUR 168 mn in the first seven months of the year. Barcelona is not the only Spanish port courting this traffic: PortCastelló, which handles about 20% of Spain-Egypt trade, brought a trade mission to Cairo and Alexandria in July.

Customs in your pocket

Nafeza is preparing a new version of its mobile app that will let traders follow their customs transactions and shipments from their phones, a source at Misr Technology Services (MTS), which runs the platform, tells EnterpriseAM. The update promises a faster app with a redesigned interface and some services available on mobile for the first time, the source says. Traders will be able to manage their Nafeza accounts from their phones from day one on both Android and iOS. The source didn’t say which services are new or when the update will go live.

The new version is built for a paperless system, with faster transactions through services updated to end paper documents at customs ports on Thursday, the source says. The Customs Authority stops accepting paper from Thursday, 29 October, under a decision we reported last week. Importers registering on Nafeza will need an e-seal tied to their tax ID and an electronic signature.

IN CONTEXT- Nafeza’s current app has offered declaration status checks, tariff searches, and customs exchange rates for years. The bigger goal is faster clearance. Average release times fell to about 5.8 days in August from around 16 days in June 2024, against a two-day target, Investment Minister Mohamed Farid has said. The platform is also bringing overland freight into the system for the first time.

Xceed buys into India

Telecom Egypt’s outsourcing arm Xceed said it acquired an unnamed Indian business process outsourcing (BPO) company in mid-2026 and is now running more than 500 staff in Hyderabad on voice and non-voice support for international clients, making India its sixth market after Egypt, Morocco, Mauritius, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, Veto reports.