Foreign trade case study of Cotton in Egypt

Manal Banana

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

Cotton is soft fiber that grows into a ball or protected case. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. Egyptian cotton has been one of Egypt greatest competitive advantages in market for the last three centuries with marvelous reputation throughout the world for being the best cotton for its strength and softness. Around 96 percent of land area is desert leaving only 3 percent of land area arable in Egypt. However, even from this small percentage of area Egypt sees great results as agriculture makes up 1/7 of the whole GDP and employs about 32 percent of working citizens in Egypt. Egypt is the largest producer when it comes to long staple cotton, but total production of Egyptian cotton is just a small fraction of world cotton yields. Cotton industry is one of the major industries that supports Egyptian economy though the quantity of cotton exported is low because of a very small arable area in the country the quality is regarded as the best. The greatest challenge faced by Egyptian cotton is a financial one. In 2004, government of Egypt decided to liberalize the cotton sector, the main sector’s problem became financing the cotton crop. For two centuries (1800-2001) cotton was the primary cash crop but that has changed in the last two decades the cotton industry of Egypt is in decline. From the beginning of 2017 the Egyptian government has been taking steps to stop and reverse this decline on the cotton industry. The Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation has been tasked to oversee the quality of cottonseed and handle the distribution of these seeds also the government also increased their reported indicative price for cotton. Hence, the production and exports of cotton used in luxury bedding has increased 63 percent between the first and second half of 2017.

Keywords

Foreign trade, Cotton, Exports, Imports, Economy, Egybt

Jazyk práce: English

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 15. 3. 2019

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Vedúci: doc. Ing. Mansoor Maitah, Ph.D. Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Economics and Management

Bachelor programme / odbor:
Economics and Management / Economics and Management