Egyptian cotton production falls, sparking protectionist calls
By Alex Dziadosz
First Published: March 9, 2009
CAIRO: The market for Egyptian cotton, the legendary commodity that enriched Muhammad Ali-era pashas and fueled the growth of a sizeable textile industry last century, is not what it used to be. A British Economist Intelligence Unit report said that domestic cotton production plummeted by half this season, as farmers reacting to lower prices switched to wheat, corn, vegetables and other crops.
Global cotton production fell this season due to high input costs around planting time, the global downturn and higher prices for competing crops. The drop in local supply has been steep enough to prompt local textile producers and other groups to call on the government to create a subsidy of LE 150 per kantar and temporarily ban imports.
“There is a collapse in [the cotton] sector,” said Ahmed El-Naggar, economist at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. “Our government should try to enable farmers to make profits by giving subsidies to them.” Farming subsidies in the United States, the world’s largest cotton exporter, have held cotton prices artificially low, said El-Naggar. “This put Egyptian farmers under real pressure,” he said. “If they grow cotton they will lose.”
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http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=20248
Egypt Agriculture & livestock
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Egypt Agriculture & livestock
nice info that is really and i wanna know more about this country because i ama huge fan man really and the best thing is that the rings is mine favorite and also the engagement rings because that is something really awesome and i love using the necklaces & pendants actually i love Egypt that is why i love this website!!
Southern Farming
Another year, another food crunch, but this time the nation looks south to satisfy its agricultural needs
By Robert Tashima, Oxford Business Group
With irrigation efforts moving slowly and imports beset by inconsistencies, Egypt has begun to follow its neighbors’ lead into overseas farming. Persistently high wheat prices — and the resulting social instability over the price of bread — have motivated the government to seek new sources for the staple. The so-called “land grab,” where rich but infertile nations head to poorer yet arable ones to secure food for their populations, while not unfamiliar before, is now happening on an unprecedented scale. Egypt did not embrace the trend as quickly as some of its neighbors, but since the bread riots in spring 2008, the government has announced two such projects in the hopes of providing respite to the price shocks of the past year.
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http://businesstodayegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=8594