45 Firms Ship 43 Percent of Egypt’s Exports as Damietta’s Share Halves to 4 Percent
Egypt’s 45 largest exporters account for about 43 percent of the country’s exports out of roughly 50,000 exporting companies, the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade said on 22 September. The figure came as the ministry took its export initiative to Damietta, a governorate whose share of non-oil exports fell to about 4 percent in January to August 2026 from about 8.1 percent in 2025.
A narrow base at the top
On our calculation, the 45 companies make up about 0.1 percent of Egypt’s exporters. On our reading, that concentration means a setback at a handful of large firms shows up quickly in the national total. Minister Mohamed Farid Saleh said the aim is to bring hundreds of new companies into exporting and to diversify exports and widen their geographic reach.
Damietta’s numbers
| Period | Non-oil exports | Share of Egypt’s non-oil exports |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $3.6 billion | 9% |
| 2025 | $4.1 billion | 8.1% |
| January to August 2026 | $1.2 billion | 4% |
Ministry statement of 22 September 2026. Every figure is described by the ministry as approximate.
Damietta’s non-oil exports grew about 14 percent in 2025, on our calculation. The 2026 figure breaks that trend. On our calculation, after eight months the governorate has shipped about 29 percent of last year’s non-oil total. That is an average of about 150 million dollars a month, against about 340 million dollars a month in 2025, a pace more than half lower. The ministry’s statement did not explain the lower 2026 figure, and this article does not offer one.
Fertilisers and chemicals lead the governorate’s exports, alongside furniture, textiles, cotton and food industries, the ministry said. The base behind them is large. The furniture city and investment zone cover 331 feddans and hold about 351 projects with investments of close to 32 billion Egyptian pounds. The public free zone holds investments above 1.7 billion dollars. The Tahya Misr 1 container terminal at Damietta port began trial operations in February 2026, with capacity of up to 3.5 million equivalent containers.
Why it matters: Egypt’s export base is highly concentrated at the top. On our reading, that makes the count of new exporters the number to watch. Damietta shows the other side of the problem: a governorate with a port, a free zone and a furniture cluster produced a smaller share of national non-oil exports in the first eight months of 2026 than in 2025.
Outlook: The ministry said it will measure the initiative by the number of companies that start exporting, the number that raise their exports, the number that enter new markets, and Damietta’s contribution to national exports. The initiative started in Gharbia, moved to Port Said and reached Damietta on 22 September. The Foreign Trade Training Center, which has trained about 60 Damietta companies since 2023, signed a cooperation protocol with Damietta University the same day.
Sources: Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade.
