Aly Kassem

Institute of National Planning, Agricultural Planning and Development, Faculty Member

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Dr. kassem is working on a 2nd PhD dissertation on "Analyzing the Technical Efficiency of manufacturing SMEs in Tanzania", Faculty of African Studies and Research, Cairo University. He has about 20 years of working experience in the fields of Processing economics, quality economics, value chain analysis, quality systems, projects evaluations, SMEs development. He served as a short term expert and consultant for USAID projects i.e USAID's SEED (Strengthening Entrepreneurships and Enterprises Development) and FAS (Agriculture and Food Security). He managed and participated in several international projects aimed at developing SMEs and increase their competitiveness funded by international donors such as UNIDO, EU, African Bank for Development, Spanish agency for international development cooperation. Dr. Kassem worked as the Technical support and quality systems manager at the Egyptian ministry of trade and industry serving at the Food and Agro Industries Technology Centre. He holds a MSc in Economics of food processing and a PhD in quality economics in dairy processing plants from the university of Zagazik in Egypt. As well, he is working in the field of food safety and quality systems for food industries companies with practical experience/ achievements in this field as a Food Safety Trainer/ Consultant with a number of trainees exceeded 4500 trainees in more than 300 food industry companies in Egypt.

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Mazhar Nadeem

Northeast Institute of Geography and Agricultural Ecology, CAS

Oleg Nivievskyi

Kyiv National Economic University

Kenan PEKER

Selcuk University (Selçuk Üniversitesi)

Amr Amer

Alexandria University

Ambo University

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Papers by Aly Kassem

تكاليف سلامة الغذاء: دراسة حالة مزارع التمور الصغيرة بالواحات البحرية

Food Safety Cost: A Case Study of Small Date Farms in Baharia Oasis, 2018

This study aimed at estimating cost of conformance and non-conformance with food safety requireme... more This study aimed at estimating cost of conformance and non-conformance with food safety requirements in small date farms in Baharia Oasis as a case study based on BS 6143-2/2007 for quality economics, 2 nd Edition. A questionnaire was designed to assess Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) in 38 small date farms located at Baharia Oasis specifically in the areas of Bawiti, Mandisha and Zabo against the applicable requirements of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Good Handling Practices (GHP) user's guide issued in 2011 by the United States Department of Agricultural (USDA) as a tool to evaluate food safety status in agricultural farms. Some quantitative measures were estimated i.e. minimum, maximum, average and standard deviations and the coefficient of variation for farmers' additions of chemical and organic fertilizers, pesticides and losses during different pre and post-harvest stages. The study reached some major findings, which are: Direct cost of non-conformance with quality and food safety requirements in small date farms in Baharia Oasis in the agricultural season 2017/2018 amounted to about 337.710 million EGP including: 1) Annual losses in farm productivity that estimated at 205.605 million Egyptian pounds. 2) Annual losses in production quantities during harvest, adjusting moisture and storage that estimated at 132.105 million EGP. On the other hand, the cost of conformance with the quality and food safety requirements was estimated at 428.070 million Egyptian pounds represent: 1) Cost of constructing water sedimentation ponds that estimated at 9,380 million EGP to irrigate the entire area of small date farms in Baharia Oasis with water purified from heavy metals. 2) Cost of building drip irrigation networks for all small date farms in Baharia Oasis that estimated at 204.975 million EGP. 3) Cost of training permanent labor in small date farms in Baharia Oasis on GAP that estimated at 5.887 million pounds. 4) Cost of covering date punches with cloths bags to prevent them from insects and physical contamination with dust for all date palm trees in Baharia Oasis that estimated at 47.828 million pounds. 5) Cost of establishing 10 refrigerators to store the entire quantities of dates in small farms in Baharia Oasis (38288 tons per year) that estimated at 160 million pounds.

Suggested Citation: Kassem, A. Z. (2018). "Food Safety Cost: A Case Study of Small Date Farms in Baharia Oasis, Foreign notes No. 1661, Institute of National Planning, Cairo, September 2018.

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تحليل الكفاءة الفنية لمشروعات الصناعات الغذائية والمشروبات والتبغ الصغيرة والمتوسطة فى مصر باستخدام تحليل مغلف البيانات ثنائى المرحلة

Analyzing Technical Efficiency of Food & Beverages and Tobacco SMEs in Egypt using two-stage DEA

The objective of this study was to analyze the technical efficiency of Food & Beverage and Tobacc... more The objective of this study was to analyze the technical efficiency of Food & Beverage and Tobacco Small and Medium Enterprises (FBT SMEs) in Egypt and identify the specific factors that affecting its technical efficiency. The study was based on data of 203 FBT SMEs that were included in the World Bank Enterprise Survey on Egypt in 2016. The two-stage Date Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was utilized to estimate the technical efficiency of FBT SMEs at the first stage, followed by the use of Tobit Regression Model at the second stage to measure the relationship between the estimated technical efficiency scores and some selected variables. The study reached some major findings, which are: The average "pure" technical efficiency at Variable Return on Scale (VRS TE) was estimated at 0.279, which means that FBT SMEs can reduce the utilizations of its resources in terms of permanent labor and capital assets by 72.1% without affecting their outputs represented in Annual sales. The results of the study showed also that 96.26% of the FBT SMEs were working at the stage of Increasing Return of Scale (IRS), which means that these SMEs have not yet reached the technical efficiency that enable them of best-employing their economic resources. The study results approved significant positive relationships between VRS TE from one hand and project manager's years of experience, complying with the requirements of a quality system and percentage of skilled workers from the other hand. Statistically significant negative impact of the establishment age, export and presence in an industrial area have also been proven. It was also found that the nationality and type of ownership, establishment size, project manager's education level, training and utilized percentage of operating capacity have no significant effect on FBT SMEs' TE.

Key Words: Small and Medium Enterprises, Technical Efficiency, Food & Beverage and Tobacco Industry, World Bank Enterprise Survey

Suggested Citation: Kassem, A.Z. (2018). Analyzing Technical Efficiency of Food & Beverages and Tobacco SMEs in Egypt using two-stage DEA, Egyptian journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. (28), No. (3), pp.1477-1488.

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تطبيقات نظم المعلومات فى سلاسل إمداد الحاصلات الزراعية فى مصر: دراسة حالة شبكة بشاير

Applications of Information Systems in the Horticulture Supply Chain in Egypt: A Case Study of Bashair Network, 2017

This paper aimed to stand upon the utilizations of information systems in the Egyptian horticultu... more This paper aimed to stand upon the utilizations of information systems in the Egyptian horticulture marketing via studying the case of "Bashair" application that purposes to link small farmers community directly to their markets. The descriptive analysis and the case study approaches were employed to describe and analysis 164 purchase applications and 210 offers to sell horticulture crops through Bashair application i.e. dealing manners (immediate supply, supply contract and contractual agriculture), kinds and quantities of crops demanded or offered, packaging specifications, payments methods, receiving place, cost and type of transportation and most governorates using the application. In addition, a structured interviews were held with Bashair network officials to answer the research question "What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the agricultural information systems applications in Egypt?" The study reached some major findings, which are: the mobile information systems represented in mobile android & apple applications were utilized successfully in forming the first online agriculture markets in Egypt that connects the crops sellers and buyers as well as providing information about climate and crops' prices. Bashair agricultural information network helped in accomplishing long term supply contracts and contractual agriculture for farmers belong to the cooperative and national associations.

Suggested citation: "Applications of information systems in the horticulture marketing in Egypt: a case study of Bashair network", Alexandria Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Vol (62), No. (5), pp. 651-663. Proceeding of the 4th conference of Economic and Agribusiness Department, Agriculture faculty, Alexandria University.

Key words: Agricultural Information Systems, Mobile Information Systems, Agricultural Marketing, Agricultural Supply Chains, Mobile applications.

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تحليل الكفاءة الفنية لمزارع التمور الصغيرة بالواحات البحرية بإستخدام تحليل مغلف البيانات

Measuring Technical Efficiency of Small Date Farms in Bahaira Oasis using Data Envelopment Analysis, 2017

This paper aimed at measuring the Technical Efficiency (TE) of small-scale date farms in Baharia ... more This paper aimed at measuring the Technical Efficiency (TE) of small-scale date farms in Baharia oasis using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method, in addition to highlighting the most important pre and post-harvest practices, in small-scale date farms that affecting productivity in order to draw polices to improve the production and productivity of Egyptian dates. The study utilized the (DEA) approach which is based on the linear programming to create an envelope or a field containing the data. A questionnaire was designed to obtain primary data on the input (Production amounts in tons) and outputs (Total labor and number of palm trees) from 37 small date farms in the city of Baharia oasis affiliated Giza Governorate, namely the villages of Al-Bawity, Mandisha and Al-Zubo respectively. The study reached some major findings which are: The average TE of Baharia oasis small date farms in the case of Constant Rate of Scale (CRS) was estimated at 0.172 only, this means that those farms can increase their production of dates by 82.8% without any Increase in quantity or amount of their economic resources used. On the other hand, the TE of small date farms in Baharia oasis was estimated at 0.642 when considering Variable Rate of Scale (VRS), which means that these farms can increase their production by 35.8% without any increase in the quantity or amount of economic resources used. The Scale Efficiency (SE) of the small date farms in the Baharia oases was estimated at only 0.279, which means that these farms need to increase their scale by 72.1% to benefit from the economics of scale. The study attributed the low TE of Baharia oasis dates to poor pre and post-harvest agricultural practices.

Suggested Citation: "Measuring Technical Efficiency of Small Date Farms in Bahaira Oasis using Data Envelopment Analysis", the annual conference of the Egyptian Association for Agricultural Economy, November 1st 2017.

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GAP and GHP Analysis in Small Date Farms in Baharia Oasis

GAP and GHP Analysis in Small Date Farms in Baharia Oasis, 2018

This paper aimed at assessing the agricultural practices related to food safety in Small Date Far... more This paper aimed at assessing the agricultural practices related to food safety in Small Date Farms (SDF) in Baharia Oasis in terms of food safety hazards either biologically, chemically or physically. A questionnaire was designed to assess the agricultural practices in 38 Baharia Oasis SDF located at Bawity, Mandisha and Zabo areas in specific against the applicable requirements of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Good Handling Practices (GHP) guide (USDA, 2011). The descriptive approach was utilized, and some statistical indicators was extracted using Microsoft excel program, i.e. average, minimum, maximum, standard deviation and variation coefficient. The study reached some major findings, which are: The average dilution of pesticides used in Baharia small farms was estimated at 0.01% (the standard dilution is 0.003%) with a minimum of 0.001 and a maximum of 0.05,This may attribute to unstandardized manners of dilution. also the pesticide per acre amounts were estimated at 2.649 litter in average (the standard amounts are 1 litter per acre) with a minimum of 0.571 litter and a maximum of 8 litters, with a variation coefficient of 95.2%. These results may attribute to the arbitrary usage of the pesticide from farmers, where they believe that they need to excessively adding the pesticide in order to insure controlling and killing the red palm weevil or making a precaution procedure. On other hand, the actual Pre Harvest Interval (PHI) was estimated at 74,23 days in average (the Exact time for chlorsan 48% is 15 days and less than 7 days for Malason 57%) with a minimum of 15 days and a maximum of 210 days, with a variation coefficient of 294.96%. This may indicate that nevertheless the excessive addition of pesticide per acre or per tree, the long PHI may help in reducing the pesticide traces at the end of the day. Due to the traditional manners of harvesting the mechanical damage loss of date during the harvest stage is estimated at 9% at average with a minimum of 2% and a maximum of 20%, with a variation coefficient of 51,77%. The average loss of date during "Sun Dehydration or Tanshir ‫ير‬ ‫ي‬ ‫ي‬ ‫ي‬ ‫ي‬ ‫ي‬ ‫ي‬ ‫"تنش‬ process is estimated at 10% with a minimum of 2% and a maximum of 20%, with a variation coefficient of 55,46%.

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Cost of Foodborne Illnesses: A literature Review

Cost of Foodborne Illnesses: A literature Review, 2018

The accurate cost of foodborne illnesses remains a highly important concern worldwide. The estima... more The accurate cost of foodborne illnesses remains a highly important concern worldwide. The estimation methods of foodborne cost are different as well the resulted estimates. This paper represents a literature review of the cost of foodborne illnesses worldwide and at some national levels. In addition, highlighting the common methods used in estimating the foodborne illnesses cost and its related items. The study reached some major findings, which are: The known foodborne pathogens estimated at 31, 15 and 14 pathogens according to World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in United States of America and The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Europe respectively. The most concerned foodborne pathogens worldwide are; Campylobacter spp., non-typhoidal Salmonella enterica, Salmonella Typhi, Taenia solium, hepatitis A virus and Fungi producing aflatoxins. The dominating methodologies to estimate the foodborne illnesses cost are; the Two USA cost-of-illness models developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) developed by WHO. The burden of foodborne illnesses is not only represented by the estimated annual cases of food-related illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths, but also by the cost involved.

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