Egyptian Cotton Fiber Excellency Safeguards Egyptian Home Textiles Exports from 2005 challenges

This is due to the demand generated by consumers in the US for Egyptian cotton bed linen and towels, which is considered a vital element to safeguard bed linen and towels exports from fierce price competition of Indian and Pakistani home textile manufacturers after the elimination of quotas. The Egyptian exports of bed linen and towels have reached 31 Million USD in 2003 with a surge of 28% from 2002 export value. Compared to 2002, the Egyptian export values of towels in 2003 have experienced an increase of 18%, while the exports of bed linen have increased by 43% (compared to 1996, year in which the exports of bed linen were inconsiderable, the increase in 2003 counts for 99%).The Egyptian bed linen exports have mostly relied on Egyptian cotton fiber properties due to consumer demand in the US. Accordingly, major brands and retailers in the US began to increase their sales by using the Egyptian cotton brand in their marketing and promotion campaigns. The consumer demand on Egyptian cotton bed linen has encouraged private investments in concentrating on weaving high density fabrics with more than 400 threads per inch using Egyptian cotton fiber. Egypt is the 6th largest supplier of bed linen to the USA market with its share of 1.1% in the value of imports in 2003. China is the largest exporter of bed linen to the US and it represents around 20% of USA bed linen imports. Egypt has become the 8th in the top exporting countries of towels to USA, because Egypt does not use blended yarns in the manufacture of towels.When it comes to the Towel manufacturing, Egypt does not rely only on the Egyptian Cotton Fibre. Another option used is the Towel manufacturing with imported yarns of short and medium staple cotton from India and Pakistan. This is due to the competition raised from India and Pakistan, which import the Egyptian Cotton Fiber in order to blend it with their short and medium staple cotton fiber and promote the Towel final product using “Egyptian Cotton Loops” (for further details, please refer to egytex.com newsletter – issue 20).