Although three quarters of Egyptians work in the cotton sector, the government  has not lived up to its promises to re-establish cotton farming subsidies and fix prices to help out this ailing sector.  Instead, the agricultural ministry has changed its policies on more than one occasion, leaving cotton workers furstrated. Many have abandoned Egypt’s flagship industry all together.

Although three quarters of Egyptians work in the cotton sector, the government  has not lived up to its promises to re-establish cotton farming subsidies and fix prices to help out this ailing sector.  Instead, the agricultural ministry has changed its policies on more than one occasion, leaving cotton workers furstrated. Many have abandoned Egypt’s flagship industry all together.

“It is no longer rewarding,” says Mohamed Hafez, a former employee at the Stiya Textile Company and currently a textile and wool trader. “The Egyptian pound has devaluated, the cost of importing cotton and textile has increased and the government’s decisions on cotton farming are confusing.”

During last month’s harvest season, the Coordination Committee for Cotton Marketing met with officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, agricultural cooperatives, the Cotton Research Institute, the Egyptian Cotton Council and the Association of Cotton Producers and called on the government to honor its promises and provide subsidies to market the local cotton crops as well as fix the prices of cotton grown in coastal and southern parts of the country. The move could not have come sooner.

Flip-flop policy

In January 2015, the  then Minister of Agriculture called on farmers to only cultivate cotton after finalizing contracts with textile factories, which enraged cotton farmers and led to many of them give up growing cotton the following season.

As a result, the Cotton Arbitration and Testing General Organization saw areas cultivated with cotton drop from 376,000 acres (which produced 2.2 million hundredweight) last season to 249,000 acres (1.7 hundredweight) this past July. Egyptian cotton exports decreased by over 21 percent during the second quarter 0f 2015.

Then in early July, the former agricultural minister issued a decision to stop importing cotton until the local cotton reserve was used up. Although farmers welcomed the decision, thinking that the government was reconsidering its position, the Chamber of Industries was outraged because the decision, they believed, would harm most of the factories that use imported cotton of short and medium fibers, while the Egyptian cotton is of long fibers. A week later, the government revoked the minister’s decision.

The government was then accused of appeasing to business. Ibrahim Mahlab’s government however announced that it would not give up on the Egyptian cotton and pledged to subsidize it.

Egypt’s major industry

Cotton is one of Egypt’s most competitive commodities in the global market due to its high quality: long, resistant, and smooth fibers.

“The government serves importers’ interests,” says Hafez. “High-profile, influential figures with governmental connections facilitate things for importers in exchange for commissions and bribes,” he claims.

“We import Russian and Greek cotton which does not have fibers at all because it is not grown in hot countries. It is more like cotton rolls. Unfortunately, the government is dictated to buy imports. Besides, this is not new. The government usually makes promises before cotton cultivation and withdraws its promises at harvest.”

Last October, a number of farmers from Al Sharqia Governorate, eastern Egypt, set fire to their cotton crops on their land, to protest the low prices of cotton and their inability to afford harvesting them. “The cotton harvest time used to be a feast in which farmers would organize the weddings of their children and supply them with their needs,” added Hafez.

Gift from God

“Cotton, like other crops, is a gift from God,” says Ayman Abdulhadi, a farmer from Monufia. “However, the market quality largely impacts its cultivation. Traders say ‘it is about good marketing rather than good crops.’”

Cotton, says Abdulhadi, requires care and attention not only from farmers but also from the government. “The government should provide high-quality seeds and the needed quantities of fertilizers. Each acre of land needs 10 bags of fertilizers, while agricultural cooperatives only provide farmers with five bags, forcing them to buy the other five from the black market, which increases the cost of cotton cultivation,” he said.

Besides cotton, farmers cultivate other crops, such as watermelon, cucumber, Egyptian cucumber, etc. to evade a total loss in case cotton prices are low.

Abdulhadi concurs with Hafez that the control over the market and the prices by big traders, brokers and exporters and the government abandoning of farmers at harvest have made farmers give up growing cotton, stressing that most of the Monufia’s lands are now cultivated with potatoes as a result.

Cotton and households

“Seventy five percent of Egyptians work in the cotton sector,” says Khalid Diyab, the owner of a textile factory in Alexandria. “They include farmers, workers who cultivate and harvest cotton and control pests, brokers who buy cotton, and workers who gin, spin and weave it. Therefore, any cotton-related decision impacts not only the cotton sector but also a large number of households.”

The residues of the ginning process are the seeds that are squeezed to produce oil, while the residues of the squeezing process are used as feed for animals.

When asked about the pretext of removing the ban on importing cotton, Diyab said: “It is not true because many factories use cotton of long fibers. However, long fibers need combing which increases costs. It is a false pretext the government uses to disavow its responsibility for cotton.”