Egypt Stitch & Tex 2026 opens in Cairo as about ten Turkish textile firms eye the Egyptian market

The Egypt Stitch & Tex 2026 international exhibition for textile technology and equipment opened on 24 September at the Cairo International Conference Center in Nasr City, held alongside Cairo Textile Week, according to reports by Hapi Journal and Egyin.

The three-day show, running until 26 September under the Ministry of Industry, was opened by Maha Saleh, Assistant Minister of Industry for Industrial Policies, together with Turkey's ambassador to Cairo. Heads of the textile, ready-made garments, engineering and chemical industry chambers attended.

Machinery makers court Egyptian mills

Exhibitors included Swiss and German machinery groups Rieter, Barmag, Saurer and Loepfe, alongside Chinese, Turkish and other European suppliers, showing spinning, weaving, printing, dyeing and automation technology. The programme also covered smart manufacturing, digital printing and environmental compliance, including EU digital product passport requirements.

Saleh said developing the spinning and weaving industry is directly linked to modernising production lines and raising factory efficiency to meet global market requirements, describing technological change as central to competitiveness.

The ambassador said around ten Turkish companies are seeking to enter the Egyptian market in textiles and ready-made garments, and that more Turkish investment could support technology transfer between the two countries.

Mohamed El-Kateb, head of the Chamber of Textile Industries, said competition abroad now depends on "quality and execution speed," not only production capacity.

A $1.4bn export target

According to the Textiles Export Council, spinning and textile exports reached $617 million in the first seven months of 2026. The sector is targeting $1.4 billion by the end of the year.

What it means for Egyptian exporters

Closing the gap between $617 million and $1.4 billion will depend on upstream mills producing yarn and fabric of the quality and consistency that garment exporters and European buyers now demand. For Egyptian spinners and weavers, events like this are a direct route to the machinery that makes that possible. The steady arrival of Turkish producers also means more local demand for Egyptian yarn and fabric, but also stiffer competition for export orders.