Company Profile

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Sarsheen International Limited was established in Egypt by Lord Nabil Elnagy in 1972.
Nabil Elnagy Snr graduated from Cairo University in 1967 with a BSc in Agriculture and Chemistry and then went on to a PhD in Agronomy. Later that year he worked for the Government agency in Cairo called The Nile Co. in the department of export for agricultural produce, at which time dealt mainly with Soyuzplodimport in the USSR and Hortex in Poland.
In 1972 companies were created in the UK, Egypt and Holland for both fruits and vegetables imports and export companies to send produce from Egypt, Kenya, India and Cyprus.  When business expanded greatly by the early 80's the Elnagy group had nearly 50% market share of the UK Garlic market. By this time the group were also importing from Italy, France, Spain, USA, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Egypt, Kenya, India, Cyprus, Thailand and China, increasing the number of products offered, including the supply of Peppers directly to two of the main supermarket chains in the UK, Sainsbury’s and Tescos, and also supplied Beans, Garlic and Ginger indirectly to most of the other major supermarket chains such as Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Safeway through traders such as Geest Group, Exotic Farm and MWW. In main land Europe the group directly supplied large supermarket chains such as KESKO and VIKKOLINE in Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark with Oranges.

In the 90’s the Elnagy group further diversified activities to include Garlic, Onions, Oranges, Apples, Bananas, Ginger, Yams, Plantains, Cassava, Eddos, Cho Cho, Coco Yams, Coconuts, Mangoes and Sweet Potatoes. At this point the group was made up of 11 Import and Export Companies, which in turn gained large quota licenses for the imports of Bananas. This part of the business grew quickly which granted the companies one of the five Banana Quotas in the whole of the UK. At this time a lot of trade was done with Del Monte in Costa Rica and Brazil and also Del Monte UK. The companies were then asked by the UK Department of Agriculture to advise them in talks with Brussels regarding the creation of legislating the Banana Importation Policy of the EU and following this he was also asked to consult on legislation governing the import of Garlic in to the EU which at this time became subject to importation quota. 

With 11 company’s licenses, this made the Elnagy group of companies the biggest importer of Garlic both in the UK and one of the biggest in all of the European Union. Since this time the group has concentrated heavily on importing Garlic, Ginger, Onions and Oranges in to the EU. The group has also had successful partnerships growing our own produce in China, India, Sri Lanka and Egypt. At this point Mr Elnagy became the owner of the first and only Pan-Arab and Pan-African television satellite channel solely dedicated to agriculture and farming, putting more focus on the Egyptian exporting side of the business.