Technical and financial review for essential oils, herbs and spices in Egypt
Ezdehar is a private equity fund manager investing in high-growth businesses in Egypt. It targeted an agricultural project focusing on the production of essential oils, herbs and spices. The client required an international consulting firm to assess the investment opportunity.
The challenge
Financial due diligence was on-going and the client already had a project Business Plan. After performing economic, social and legal due diligence, the client requested verification that the agronomic assumptions were in line with the actual production capacity.
FGM results
FGM drew on its relevant experience in large-scale farming projects, knowledge of Egypt and subject matter expertise in producing special crops, to a) review and adapt the Business Plan according to the actual capacity of the project resources, and b) to support investment decision-making.
Herbs, spices and essential oils
FGM International was assigned to review the in-house capacity of the farming project and its complementary outgrower scheme. A special focus was required on the following crops:
- Herbs & Spices: mainly parsley, basil, coriander, dill, cumin, fennel and marjoram,
- Crop production for essential oil crushing such as geranium, cumin and chamomile.
Herbs, spices and essential oils production in Egypt
Site assessment preparation
- Preliminary remote-sensing and farm overview,
- Collection of agronomic and financial data for review of available studies,
- Organization of the mission.
On-site assessment
Our team perfomed the following tasks :
- Site investigation with evaluation of the location’s accessibility,
- Assessment of water availability and topography,
- Collection and analysis of local data,
- Review of infrastructure: pivot irrigation, drip-irrigated greenhouses, farming fleet and equipment maintenance,
- Assessment of crop husbandry plan and yield results,
- Interview of the management team together with review of human resources structure.
Assessment of the nursery in drip-irrigated greenhouses
Economic review and reporting
- Delivery of findings and recommendations with comprehensive review of all economic indicators (cost breakdown, crop profitability, gross margin and net profit estimates),
- Update of the Business Plan,
- Highlight of key factors of success and potential issues or bottlenecks to be solved in order to facilitate investment in the project,
- Final presentation of the report at client HQ.
Provided services in the frame of this project
Interesting reading relevant to this project
Egypt
3 experts
2019
1 Month
3000 ha
EZDEHAR
Assigned competencies
- Regional senior management expert
- Senior aromatic and medicinal plant expert
- Senior agricultural business expert
