Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt’s cotton exports are expected to grow 37% year-on-year to 52,000 tonnes in the 2017/2018 season, helped by improving crop quality, Nabil al-Santaricy, head of the Alexandria Cotton Exporters Association has said.
The North African nation's cotton production is on the rise on the back of a devalued currency and bigger cultivation area, Reuters reported. It is worth noting that the Egyptian cotton season ends in August.
“Next year we expect to yield approximately 120,000 tonnes overall, so we expect exports to rise by approximately 40-45 percent if we export around 75,000 tonnes,” al-Santaricy told the news agency.
In 2011, cotton output of the Arab world's most populous country dropped sharply on the absence of quality regulations. While demand for Egyptian cotton, dubbed white gold, has jumped after quality rules have been strictly re-enforced since 2016.
For his part, Modern Nile Cotton's chairman Ahmed Elbosaty said that Egypt is the world's second-largest exporter of long-staple cotton after the US.
“This time we are coming back with a volume the market is used to and was in desperate need for ... Now the quality is back and the quantity is going up,” he told Reuters.
