Egypt moves to deepen local manufacturing, cut textile imports

Deputy Prime Minister for Industrial Development and Minister of Industry and Transport, Kamel Al-Wazir, held a meeting with Minister of Public Enterprises Sector Mohamed El-Shimy and a group of manufacturers from the spinning, textiles, ready-made garments, and home furnishings industries to discuss ways to deepen local manufacturing and reduce Egypt’s import bill.

The meeting was attended by representatives from the Ready-Made Garments and Textiles Chamber, the Apparel Export Council, as well as senior officials from the Ministries of Industry and Public Enterprises Sector.

At the outset, Al-Wazir said the meeting marked the first in a series of regular consultations aimed at reviewing and developing the spinning, weaving, and ready-made garments sector, particularly in light of strong global demand for establishing garment factories in Egypt.

He stressed the importance of deepening all stages of the textile value chain, including ginning, spinning, finishing, dyeing, and weaving, especially given the availability of key raw materials, most notably cotton and flax.

Al-Wazir noted that the Ministry of Industry is fully prepared to provide all forms of support to serious investors seeking to establish spinning and textile factories, with the objective of meeting the needs of local manufacturers, reducing imports, and addressing supply-chain gaps in the ready-made garments and home furnishings sectors.

He also underscored the importance of producing a comprehensive range of yarns—including cotton, flax, polyester, and wool—and urged local manufacturers to engage global brands sourcing garments from Egypt to allocate part of their production to the domestic market.

During the meeting, participants reviewed key challenges facing the spinning and textile industry, including the high capital costs of establishing spinning factories relative to returns, restrictions on approved countries of origin for imported cotton yarns, insufficient local yarn production to meet demand, the decline in cultivated cotton areas, and shortages of domestic expertise in yarn manufacturing.

Discussions also highlighted the difficulty some local textile and garment factories face in competing with imported products that are not subject to the same level of regulatory oversight in terms of quality standards and pricing.

Al-Wazir stated that the Ministry of Industry, in coordination with relevant authorities and the Federation of Egyptian Industries, has formed a committee to address customs evasion and curb practices that harm local industry. He said the committee will intensify its efforts in the coming period to ensure that spinning, textile, and garment factories import raw materials and production inputs strictly in line with their actual production capacities.