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Planted areas of Egyptian cotton have plunged to near-record lows, falling almost 65% y-o-y, since the start of the new season, according to figures seen by EnterpriseAM. As of mid-April, cultivated areas have reached just 21k feddans — compared to over 60k feddans during the same period last season.
Forecasts for the full season point to a decline of up to 40%, according to Cotton Research Institute’s Mostafa Emara, who attributed the drop to what went down during the last cotton trading season. As of 20 April, around 14.5k feddans have been cultivated in Upper Egypt, along with another 6.5k feddans in Lower Egypt — the latter area usually accounts for more than 80% of the country’s total cotton cultivation annually.
REMEMBER- A high guaranteed price of EGP 10-12k per quintal for the 2024-2025 trading season exceeded global rates and caused private sector players to largely opt out of government-run auctions, leaving some 460k quintals unsold. The Finance Ministry is expected to disburse EGP 3 bn this week to settle overdue payments owed to cotton farmers — these funds will cover the remainder of the value of cotton delivered by farmers to the state earlier this year.
But the damage was done. While the government ultimately stepped in to purchase more than 460k quintals of unsold cotton, payment delays to farmers — which dragged into April — further discouraged planting this season, Emara told us. The EGP 3 bn allocated by the Finance Ministry is earmarked to pay off dues on some 300k quintals of cotton, and the ministry is currently reviewing claims for an additional 158k quintals.
Exports are also feeling the pinch, with actual contracted cotton exports for the first six and a half months of the current season coming in at around 19.5k tons, almost half the 36k tons exported during the same period last year, according to data from the Cotton Exporters Association. The dip came despite the government lifting its cap on cotton exports, which was first introduced during the 2023-2024 cotton trading season.
ICYMI- Egyptian cotton exporters and private companies have been calling for EGP 4 bn ingovernment subsidies to help farmers market their crops at a competitive price point. The rise in ins. costs and the dip in export prices have led to 325 companies shutting their doors last season as they were losing EGP 2k per quintal.
