The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced that Egypt's cotton exports have risen by 181.6 percent in the second quarter from December 2017 to February 2018, registering 379,700 tonnes from 134,800 tonnes during the same period of the previous year. However, in its quarterly newsletter covering that period, CAPMAS announced that the domestic cotton use has seen a 63% plummet, reaching 47,200 metric kantars (one kantar is equal to 45.02 kilograms), compared to 127,600 metric kantars last year. Egypt witnessed a remarkable decrease in the cotton production industry in 2016, especially the export market. As such in 2016, the Ministry of Agriculture announced it has taken measures to support the domestic cotton sector and increase long-term productivity of the long-staple and medium-length cotton. In 2018, the ministry announced it will increase areas used for cotton cultivation to reach 216,000 feddans (area units) to meet increasing demand from foreign countries. Despite that, Egypt announced that this increase is not enough to meet foreign demand. The Egyptian government needs to reach two million quintals (unit of weight akin to 100 kg) by 2019 if it is to meet world market demands, head of the Egyptian Cotton Exporters Association Nabil al-Sanrisi recently told ‘Veto.' He added that 70 percent of Egyptian cotton this year has been exported, showing an increase in demand compared to last year. The head of the Cotton Improvement Fund, Adel Abdel Azim told the media that the gradual increase in spaces of cotton cultivation is useful for the cotton industry as it improves its marketing worldwide. He projected that cotton growing areas will increase to 400,000 feddans by 2019. In 2016, Egyptian cotton exports amounted to 462 million dollars as reported by ITC Trade. Source: Egypt Independent
