Egypt's ministers of trade and agriculture issued a joint decree on Monday stating that cotton trading in the country will be according to the terms and regulation approved by the local cotton trading committee. The decree regulates Egypt's cotton trading system for the 2019/20 season. Minister of Trade and Industry Amr Nassar said that the new system would restore the position of Egyptian cotton globally and maintain confidence in it, adding that his ministry is coordinating with the Ministry of Agriculture to improve the cotton production system and diversify its uses in Egyptian industry. The decree also limits cotton trading to specified collection points. Moreover, farmers are allowed to get the highest possible price through auctions, and the prices will be set according to international cotton prices and the comparative advantage of Egyptian cotton. The decree also links all the collection points electronically for the sake of transparency, with a consideration for applying the new system through new collection points in Beni Swaif and Fayoum governorates as a pilot version to avoid any problems in the future. Last week, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli asserted that Egypt is keen on developing and supporting the textile sector as well as planting and selling Egyptian cotton, adding that the government plans to restore the status of Egyptian cotton globally. In the same vein, Minister of the Public Business Sector Hisham Tewfik has revealed that the ministry has allocated 21 billion pounds to maximise the added value of Egyptian cotton as part of a plan aims to improve this sector supervised by an international consultant who prepared a comprehensive study aimed at developing the sector. The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistic (CAPMAS) announced in February 2019 that Egyptian cotton exports, in the period between September and November 2018, reached 128.3 metric quintals compared to the same period of 2017, an increase of about 45.1 percent. Source: Ahram Online
