Restoring textile industry to former glory

The Cotton and Textile Industries Holding Co. is putting the final touches before opening the world’s largest spinning and weaving factory in al-Mahalla al-Kubra province, northeast of Cairo, in February.

Such was the announcement by Minister of Public Business Sector, Mahmoud Esmat in a recent statement on efforts to restore the once flourishing textile industry to its former glory.

The factory, which is affiliated to the ministry, stands on an area of 62,500 square metres, with 182,000 yarn mills of daily average production capacity of 30 tonnes of fine and thick yarns, the ministry said.

Work has been underway on 65 factories and service buildings across the nation over the past four years at a total cost of LE32 billion with the aim of increasing annual yarn production to 188,000 tons of yarn and 198 million metres of textiles, in addition to15,000 tonnes of lint and 50 million ready-made garments, the ministry added.

Since President Abdel Fattah El Sisi announced on Labour Day in 2019 the plan to develop the weaving and textile industry, tireless efforts have been made to this end, Abdel Fattah Ibrahim, Chairman of the General Syndicate of Spinning and Weaving, and Head of the International Federation of Textiles, told an Arabic daily newspaper.

The state has made breakthroughs in crop cultivation, improved seed varieties and digitisation, thus offering services and facilities to support farmers and motivate them to grow more long-staple cotton, Ibrahim added.

The government has developed cotton gins nationwide with the latest machinery, he said.

MagdiTolba, who sits on the board of the General Organisation for Export and Import Control, spoke of the prime importance of textiles for the economy.

The industry consists of several stages: cultivating, ginning, weaving, dyeing and ready-made garments, he said, explaining that each stage is an industry in itself.

Tolba stressed the dire need for

Further expansion of long-staple cotton cultivation is imperative, Tolba said, adding that at one time 2 million acres were planted with cotton, making Egypt the number one producer of long-staple cotton.

“Developing the chemical fibre industry is no less important,” he said.

He referred to a strategy he had proposed to the government to promote the textile industry in order to increase exports from LE3 billion to LE12 billion over four years.

“This requires boosting the private sector, both local and foreign investment in the industry, each with a 50 per cent share. Technical education should be linked to business and manufacturing companies, in addition to modernizing dyeing and sharpen the competitiveness of Egyptian products globally,” he added.

Economic expert and chairman of the Capital Centre for Economic Studies and Research Khaled al-Shafei said the al-Mahalla al-Kubra factory is a great achievement, which will revive the fortunes of a once flourishing industry.