Egypt is in the middle of a remodelling of its textile industry, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in a process that will likely impact long staple cotton supplies from the country.
The rejuvenation process is mainly focused in, but not restricted to, the textile, spinning and weaving hub of al-Mahala al-Kobra, a city of Egypt's Nile Delta, around 120 kilometres north of Egyptian capital Cairo, where dozens of state-owned factories are undergoing a comprehensive upgrade after decades of neglect and deterioration.
The upgrade includes the merger of some of the city's spinning, textile and weaving factories, some of which are almost a century-old, on the road to creating major industrial complexes that spool tens of thousands of tonnes of fabric and manufactured products every day.
The Egyptian government, which has launched a , allocates for the renewal of its textile, spinning and weaving factories.
The first phase of the programme has already been completed, creating major industrial mergers, including what the Egyptian cabinet describes as the "world's largest textile factory".
Fresh start
The textile industry modernisation programme is breathing new life into an industry that used to bring in a whopping percent of Egypt's export revenues in the past, a percentage that has dropped to 2.5 and 3 percent at present.
It aims to make production facilities catch up with the age by opening the door for the import of modern machinery and production lines, apart from renovating different production units inside the textile, spinning and weaving factories.
The implementation of the programme, industry specialists said, would turn Egypt into a major producer of textiles, fabrics and manufactured products.
"Egypt has always been a prime textile producer," textile industry expert, Ahmed al-Azzawi, told °®Âþµº.
"The good thing about the current upgrade is that it is export-oriented," he added.
In adding value to its cotton output, Egypt, one of the world's top producers of long staple cotton, will overcome one of the toughest challenges facing developing nations: maximising benefits from the raw materials they produce.
From the gold; cobalt; manganese, and cocoa produced in the depths of Africa to the wheat, maize and fruit produced in many Asian countries, developing nations find it difficult to add value to their raw materials, which makes them lose huge amounts of money that could be earned if they stop exporting those materials in their raw form.
Egypt apparently has a plan to buck such a raw material export trend, and cotton is coming at the centre of such an endeavour.
Lid on exports
When it comes to cotton, such an endeavour is opening the door for the emergence of gigantic industrial facilities that will work on turning this precious raw material into manufactured goods.
One of these facilities was toured by Egyptian Prime Minister, Moustafa Madbouli, on 28 December.
Constructed on 62,000 square metres, the facility, called , will produce 15 tonnes of yarn every day.
Nevertheless, Egypt's modernisation of its textile industry will likely leave its toll on cotton supplies from the country to the international market.
Egypt, the Egyptian prime minister said, may not need to export the cotton it grows soon after the textile industry modernisation programme is implemented in full later this year or early next year at most.
"The fact is that we will need all the cotton grown locally for the operation of local spinning, weaving and textile factories," the Egyptian prime minister during a tour of the aforementioned factory.
He mentioned this, he said, to assure his country's cotton farmers that they should not worry about marketing their produce, with all the quantities of cotton grown locally being needed for the operation of local factories.
The space allotted for the cultivation of cotton has been on the rise in the past few years, a move fuelled by national textile industry ambitions.
In the 2024 cultivation season, which ended last October, about 225,000 acres of land were cultivated with this crop, up from 216,000 acres in the 2018 season, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture.
Deep effects
Cotton cultivation has undergone numerous twists and turns in the past century since the export of this crop, usually referred to by Egyptian farmers as the "white gold" to international markets, constituted Egypt's largest income source.
Over the years, the failure of local factories to adapt to the nature of the cotton produced here energised the export process. The same failure also stoked up the import of huge quantities of short and medium staple cotton which fit the operation of local textile, spinning and weaving factories. This made Egypt a cotton exporter-cum-importer at one and the same time.
The current industry modernisation process has the reorientation of local industrial operations in ways that make these operations more dependent on the locally-produced long staple cotton at its centre.
This gives hope to local cotton farmers and drives the production, most of which long staple cotton, up.
In the 2024 cotton cultivation season, Egypt produced around 1.8 million pounds (roughly 4 million kilograms) of cotton, up from 1.4 million pounds (about 3.1 million kilograms), the government says.
Nonetheless, with local industrial needs growing, most of this production is expected to go for the operation of local factories, hence expectations by local experts of a heavy toll on long staple cotton supplies in the international market.
Egypt, which contributes around of all long staple cotton supplies in the international market, exports its cotton to 22 states, down from 55 states in the past, according to the Agricultural Research Centre, the research arm of the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture.
In November 2023, Egypt slashed its cotton export target by over percent.
"The gradual decline in local cotton exports will of course create a vacuum in the international market," agricultural economics specialist, Gamal Seyam, told TNA.
"I expect other countries, such as India, China and the US, to step in to compensate this shortage by increasing production," he added.