According to Egypt’s “Egypt Gazette” report on July 27: Egypt’s Minister of Agriculture al-Banna recently announced that Egypt will expand the cotton planting area to 1 million feddans (1.038 million acres) in the 2018/19 fiscal year. In 2016, Egypt’s cotton planting area was 139,000 feddans, the lowest level in history. In the 1930s, Egypt’s cotton planting area once reached 2 million feddans, but fell to 325,000 feddans in the 2013/14 fiscal year.
In recent years, due to the increase in planting costs, Egypt’s cotton planting area has decreased. Imported cotton has replaced Egypt’s self-produced cotton (90% is long-staple cotton) and has become the main raw material for the Egyptian cotton textile industry. Experts pointed out that Egypt should seize the opportunity of the depreciation of the Egyptian pound to expand cotton planting area, increase cotton exports and reduce imports. To this end, Egypt should learn from China’s experience and provide corresponding subsidies to cotton growers.
The current cotton purchase price of Egypt’s state-owned textile enterprise Cotton Textile Holding Company: Giza No. 90 and 95 cotton is 2,100 Egyptian pounds (about 116.7 US dollars) per Qintar (160 kilograms); Giza No. 86 and 94 cotton is 2,300 per Qintar Egyptian pounds. Egypt will expand cotton planting area
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