CAIRO: Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in a report issued last week that around 517,000 thousand metric quintals of Egyptian cotton valued at 7.315 million pounds have been exported from December 2009 to February 2010 compared to 61,000 metric quintals and a value of 1.43 million pounds for the same period last season. The statistics agency pointed out that India was one of the countries importing Egyptian cotton in bulk, “where the quantity exported amounted to 282,000 metric quintals at a rate of 54.5 percent of the total quantity exported during this period.” According to the report, the amount of cotton that was exported reached 763,000 metric quintals during the first season until the end of February at a value of 462.5 million pounds. Egyptian cotton is considered among the highest quality in the world and most of the top cotton from Egypt is exported out of the country. The report pointed out that the total cotton consumed reached to 423,000 metric quintals during this period at a 172 percent increase from the previous year. It explained that the total amount of consumed cotton locally reached 750,000 metric quintals during this first season compared to 406,000 metric quintals for the same period of the previous season with an increase of 84.7 percent. “The total amount of consumed imported cotton during the period from December 2009 to February 2010 reached 199,000 metric quintals compared to 391,000 metric quintals in the previous season or a drop by 49.1 percent,” the report stated. BM
