EGYPT: Egypt has taken Advantage of Low Operational Costs, High-Quality Cotton and Preferential Trade Agreements to turn its Textile and Ready-Made Garment Sector into a Booming Industry
Although Egyptian cotton was firmly enshrined as the king of all cottons, Egypt was a far cry from the first choice for companies looking for a high quality and cost-efficient textile manufacturing location. Fast forward to the present though, and ready-made garments (RMG) — mass produced clothes made of fabrics and…
Egytex News Desk
Egytex
According to CAPMAS, a government-run statistics agency, the RMG sector is worth 75% of the Egyptian textile and garment industry, with home textiles constituting 12% and cotton yarn 8%. The remaining 5% is attributed to other cotton fabrics and textiles.
Although only six textile and RMG companies made this year’s bt100 list, the industry is growing rapidly and its export numbers are multiplying.
Egypt’s RMG sector was worth LE 5.75 billion in 2007. T-shirts and other tops constituted 42.3% of total sector exports, followed by women’s suits at 13.8% and men’s suits at 12.9%.
In 2007, industry exports as a whole — including building materials, minerals, metals and textiles, among others — amounted to 32% of the country’s GDP. Among Egypt’s exporting sectors, RMG now ranks sixth and was the second fastest growing sector last year according to the bt100X list. Although total sales of RMG outside Egypt grew by just 1.1% in 2007, the 11 RMG exporters that made the bt100X list grew by 63.74% to LE 3.80 billion (up from LE 2.3 billion in 2006), constituting 66% of 2007’s total RMG exports.
Source: Business Today.com
From the Egytex news archive, first published on 16 June 2008. Figures and names are as reported at the time.
