( AFP PHOTO/KHALED DESOUKI)
The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) stated that Egyptian cotton exports from March to May 2013 totaled 351,700 tons, compared to 231,800 tons during the previous season, representing a 51.8% increase. He attributed this increase to efforts exerted by the state to focus increasingly on exports, after a number of spinning and weaving factories had been recently shut down as a result of the country’s current political turmoil.
The Agency referred in its quarterly newsletter, for the third quarter of the 2012-2013 agricultural year (lasting from March to May 2013), that total consumption rates of domestic cotton reached 346,200 metric quintals, compared to 352,300 metric quintals during the same period of the previous year, representing a 1.7% increase.
Total consumption rates for imported cotton during this period, meanwhile, reached 21,800 metric quintals, compared to 23,200 metric quintals during the previous season, representing a 6.3% decrease. This decrease came as a result of the closing down of a number of spinning and weaving factories.
Total amounts of cotton ginned during the above stated period totaled 490,000 metric quintals, compared to 1.48 million metric quintals during the previous season, representing a 67.2% decrease. This decrease was attributed to the large amounts of cotton having already been stockpiled, enough to last the country the rest of the year.
