Egypt loses export market of cotton as outputs decline

CAIRO, Oct 14 (AFP): Treading carefully among his sprawling green plants in the Nile Delta, Egyptian farmer Fatuh Khalifa fills his arms with fluffy white cotton picked by his workers.

Durable, fine and luxuriously soft, cotton sourced from Egypt has long been seen as the best on the market.

But recent years have been far from smooth for the North African country's farmers.

"I cultivate 42 hectares (104 acres) and it's expensive … while the price (of cotton) is very low", said Khalifa, who has been growing the premium long-fibre variety for over 30 years.

Profits are "meagre", he lamented, his head shaded by his cap from the unforgiving sun on his farm in Kafr El Sheikh.

Cotton was once Egypt's main source of wealth in the 19th century, as the Nile Delta provided fertile grounds for the crop used to make the towels, sheets and robes coveted by Europe's burgeoning bourgeoisie.

But decades of fierce international competition has diminished returns.

Well-marketed short-fibre cotton - while lower quality than the long-fibre variety - looks good and has increasingly been used by textile giants, dealing a heavy blow to Egyptian players.

The United States and Brazil are now the world's top cotton exporters, according to this month's report by the US Department of Agriculture, followed by India and Australia, leaving Egypt trailing far behind.