CAIRO, March 13, 2018 - The Egyptian Export Council for Handicrafts (EECH) targets a rise in its exports by 10 per cent to a value of around $225 million in 2018, the EECH Vice Chairman,Hisham El Gazzar, announced yesterday. Egypt's handicraft exports declined in 2017 by 12 per cent, to a worth of about $202 million compared to $230 million a year earlier. El-Gazzar said that, as well as increasing it ex[orts,the EECH has mapped out a strategy to develop the handicraft sector. The plan will be submitted to the Ministry of Trade and Industry for approval. The EECH plans to enter new markets to strengthen the sector. Last January, handicraft exports increased by 15.7 per cent to a value of $14 million compared to $12 million in the same period a year earlier. In 2017, ten countries, topped by Turkey and Germany,bought 56 per cent of the country's handicraft exports.