Egyptian cotton exports receded by 54.2% during the second quarter of the 2015-2016 agricultural season (December 2015 to February 2016), dropping to 11.2 million pounds compared to 24.4 million pounds during the same period in the preceding year, according to recently released data. In a June 13 statement, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) also noted that the local consumption of cotton has dropped from 17.4 million pounds to 7.6 million pounds because some textile factories had ceased production.

The drop in Egypt’s cotton exports this year shouldn’t come as a surprise, as exports have been gradually receding during the last few years. According to CAPMAS’ quarterly on cotton, Egypt exported 55 million pounds of cotton between December and February of the 1999-2000 season. The cotton exports dropped to 12.5 million pounds in the same period of the 2013-2014 season, then it rose to 24.4 million pounds in the same period of the 2014-2015 season and eventually receded again in the 2015-2016 season.

The Egyptian government had agreed to buy cotton from farmers at the price proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture — which ranged from 1,100 Egyptian pounds ($124) to 1,250 Egyptian pounds ($141) per kantar, a unit equal to roughly 100 pounds — in an attempt to encourage them to cultivate cotton.

El Sayed Abd al-Aziz, a farmer from Kafr el-Sheikh, one of the Nile Delta governorates, told Al-Monitor that cotton cultivation has become a burden to farmers, as the production of 1 acre of cotton can range between 5 and 7 kantars — when the price of a kantar does not exceed 1,100 Egyptian pounds — while the cost of cotton cultivation exceeds 6,000 Egyptian pounds ($676) per acre, which does not provide the farmer with a profit margin to cover his needs.