#一国一品走近非洲 #
What comes to mind when you think of Egypt?
Is it the boundless and uninhabited Sahara Desert, or the long, winding nile river that gives birth to life.
Is it a pyramid that stands mysteriously for thousands of years, or a sphinx that has just appeared from the yellow sand that is less than a hundred years old.
Whether it was the donkey's back, the ship, or the Suez Canal that carried the modern economy.
Is it the rich "Roman granary", or the lack of grain "big cake to live".
These are Egypt, seven mysterious with 30% contradictions, after the years of history.
Egypt has too many famous symbols, because they are too famous, and they also overshadow many other wonderful things.
Take, for example, Egyptian grapes.
Yes, this country, which is more than 90% of the country's land area covered by desert, has a very small proportion of arable land, and even has difficulty in self-sufficiency in food, currently produces about 1.7 million tons of grapes a year.
And it occupies a pivotal position in the world grape international trade.
Mysterious and contradictory, the grapes are also in line with the characteristics of Egypt.
Egyptian grapes originated from the hedonism of the ruling class
Grape plants originated in the northern region of Asia, Europe and the Americas, is one of the world's early human cultivation and utilization of fruit trees, archaeological research shows that in the 7000-10000 years ago in the western Asian region human beings have begun to domesticate the use of grapes and select high-quality varieties for artificial planting.
Ancient Egypt itself did not have grapes, and the first people to step into Egyptian land were not grape seedlings, nor fresh grapes, but wine that humans learned to make soon after using grapes (according to the latest archaeological evidence, northern Iran began to make wine around 7,000 years ago).
After the introduction of wine to Egypt, the upper ruling class soon became obsessed with the taste and enjoyed it almost every day.
In ancient Egypt, the earliest wines were used for religious sacrifices in addition to being enjoyed by the ruling class, and were extremely important sacrificial items.
In fact, the so-called sacrifice is also the ancient Egyptian ruling class for their own selfish desires, they believe that the color of wine and blood are similar, that wine means regeneration, so in addition to their own drinking, a large number of wine was used for religious sacrifices and ancestors.
As a result, the amount of wine imported from ancient Egypt no longer met the needs of the ruling class.
Around 5,000 years ago, Egypt began to introduce grapes from West Asia, preparing to make its own wine, and the introduced grape seedlings were planted along the Nile river where life was born.
The pyramids are a miracle, and growing grapes in ancient Egypt was not an easy task
The pyramid is an ancient architectural marvel, and we still can't imagine the difficulties that the ancient Egyptians encountered in building the pyramids.
But fortunately, the pyramids still stand there today, otherwise how can we know that it was so difficult to grow grapes in ancient Egypt?
In the ancient Egyptian murals, we are presented with the tedious complexity of growing grapes in ancient Egypt.
At that time, Egypt's professional vineyards were established in the river delta region.
In the frescoes, the grapes are planted on high mounds, the vineyards are surrounded by high walls, and there are sunken earth pits in the garden.
The tall mounds, the walls that were erected, and the sunken earth pits showed that the ruling class valued the grapes more than they were of practical value.
If this were not the case, there might not be live grapes even in the fertile river delta region.
In ancient times, although the Nile was the river of life in Egypt, how could nature do everything according to human will?
The Nile is not mild in character, and there are flood seasons and droughts in the river delta region.
During the flood season, the river flooded the low-lying land, so the Egyptians had to laboriously raise the plots where the grapes were planted to prevent the grapes from being flooded during the flood season.
When the river is dry, the grapes are still in the water demand period, the plants are not tolerant of waterlogging and drought, and the pits that are painstakingly dug are reservoirs to meet the water needs of the grape plants during the dry season.
The wall surrounding the vineyard area is also painstakingly built by humans, but the role of the wall is not to prevent people, ordinary people who dare to steal the grapes of the ruling class!
I am afraid that only animals who have no thought at all will guard against animals that also regard the Nile as the river of life.
In the early days, only the rulers of Egypt owned vineyards, and because of the exclusivity and difficulty of planting and production, the area of early Egyptian grapes was very small.
With the passage of time, the ancient Egyptian grape growing industry has been further developed, the planting area and scope have begun to increase, the cultivation mode and grape varieties have become increasingly rich, and grape varieties have emerged exclusively for fresh food.
Grape cultivation began in the northwest, northeast and central deltas of Egypt 4,000 years ago, as well as in the oases of Memphis and the western desert.
In addition to proprietary vineyards, the ancient Egyptians also planted grapes in other orchards and vegetable gardens, and in order to increase grape yields, planting management techniques such as irrigation methods and plant pruning have made great progress compared with before.
With the improvement of planting area and planting technology, the grape production in Egypt has increased significantly, the owners of vineyards are no longer limited to the rulers, some high-ranking aristocrats have begun to own their own vineyards, and a large number of surplus wines and table grapes have begun to enter the market.
Although the current reputation of Egyptian wine is not great, ancient Egypt had superb winemaking technology and was very popular in the region, so ancient Egyptian wine became the second most important trade item besides wheat.
Egyptian grapes take to the world stage
With the help of a long history of cultivation, Egyptian grapes began to industrialize in the 1950s and 1960s, and in the 21st century, the planting area of grapes expanded nearly 20 times compared with the early stage of industrial development, becoming the second largest fruit in Egypt.
In recent years, The annual output of Grapes in Egypt is about 1.7 million tons, and the annual export volume has reached more than 120,000 tons, making it one of the world's important grape exporters.
Egypt exports both wine grapes and table grapes, and the export market is mainly concentrated in Europe.
A large part of the grapes exported from Egypt to Europe are wine grapes, and although Europeans do not look up to Egyptian wines, they are fond of wine grapes with excellent quality, cheap prices and low transportation costs.
Under the influence of the global epidemic, the European market still has high demand, and the Egyptian grape industry has unexpectedly flourished in the past two years.
In 2016, Egyptian table grapes were officially allowed to enter the mainland, but until now, the total amount of grapes exported from Egypt to the mainland is smaller than that of other exported fruits such as Chile, and one of the reasons for the small amount is that the ripening period of Egyptian grapes is in May and September, which overlaps with the market period of mainland grapes to a large extent.
Are Egyptian grapes delicious?
I, as an agricultural man, am the least willing to answer this question, but I have to answer it.
So let's start with the following points:
The first is the variety, the grape varieties exported from Egypt are Coronson, Emerald, Red Earth, Puri Seedless, etc., these varieties themselves have good basic quality.
The second is the climatic conditions, the Egyptian grape producing area, the sunshine is sufficient, the temperature difference between day and night is large, which contributes to the accumulation of soluble solids and sugars in the grapes, and the suitable climatic conditions are conducive to the production of high-quality grapes.
In addition, the grapes exported from Egypt are all from modern-scale plantations, and they are strictly selected and tested before export, so in general, the quality and quality of Egyptian grapes cannot be said to be the best but not worse.
In addition, Egyptian grapes account for a small proportion of the mainland market, the price is not particularly high, and from Egypt, an exotic country with mysterious colors, interested friends can try it.
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