Walaa Hussein writes: Despite the importance of this unique Egyptian crop, successive Egyptian governments have failed over the last 20 years to reform its production. Cities such as El-Mahalla el-Kubra and Kafr el-Dawwar depend entirely upon this sector, for which former President Gamal Abdel Nasser set up large textile factories that have now stopped operations, such as the Misr Beida Dyers and Misrayon & Polyester Fiber Co. This crisis threatens 1.2 million Egyptians and has led to losses of 1.8 billion Egyptian pounds ($235 million) in 2014.
Several unions, like the Textile and Weaving Union in Egypt, assert that there is a global conspiracy to ruin the Egyptian textile industry in order to benefit the imported clothes industry. Yet successive Egyptian governments’ policies have abandoned support for cotton farmers, while many countries, such as India and Turkey, provide up to 30% subsidies to this industry.
The Egyptian government currently aims to limit the cultivation of Egypt’s extra-long staple cotton, which Egypt used to boast globally as the best type of cotton. To justify its decision, the Egyptian Ministry of Industry claims that the demand for this type of cotton has dropped and accounts for only 3-5% of the global market’s needs.
Egypt is well aware of this reality and that the United States subsidizes each cotton acre with $700 and stands watching. Meanwhile, Egyptian farmers have a million quintals of cotton that they cannot sell because of dumping.
Is it possible that 51 million Egyptian farmers were threatened to be thrown out of the field of agriculture because of the Ministry of Agriculture’s failed policies, which spell disaster in the Egyptian food security sector in the coming period? Egyptian gins that separate cotton from its seeds are being sold. As a result, 60% of lands accommodating these gins have been transformed into spaces for real estate.”
Qalyoubi, former head of the Chamber of Textile Industries, said harvesting cotton crops mechanically requires the introduction of genetic engineering into cultivation and the use of developed irrigation methods. The crops should all be at an equal height from the ground so as not to waste any cotton when harvesting.
He explained that the fragmentation of agricultural land that began in President Nasser’s days led to a decrease in production because the use of modern agricultural systems and irrigation requires large spaces. “The Egyptian cotton deterioration, be it in production itself or in the high cost of production, has largely impacted the textile and yarn industry in the absence of an imported alternative. In the event that cotton is imported, the price will be set by the Ministry of Agriculture and won’t represent its global price,” Qalyoubi said. Egypt has grown accustomed to exporting long staple, high-quality cotton and importing cotton of poorer quality for textile companies.
Qalyoubi said that Egypt’s textile industry faces stiff competition from India, Bangladesh and China. “Officials should know that the cultivation of cotton and the textile industry are two issues with social and economic dimensions. The textile industry employs many workers. Therefore, failure to resolve its problems may lead to serious social consequences,” he added.
Pharaohs called Egyptian cotton “white gold.” Meanwhile, nobody knows how long their descendants will keep up the global conspiracy theory to avoid facing their failure to reform Egypt’s cultivation system and the agricultural policies in the country as a whole.
