Mohamed Khairy, a resident of Gharbia in the Nile Delta, discovered the benefits, and profits, of sericulture last summer. “I earned a reasonable sum after selling cocoons to the silk producers,” the young man proudly told Al-Monitor. “Three boxes of cocoons make one kilogram of raw silk, which sold for 600 Egyptian pounds [$33].” 

The Egyptian government hopes that more young entrepreneurs will be like Khairy, who is 17 years old, and take note of the Ministry of Finance’s October announcement on lifting customs duties on the import of silkworm eggs. This decision, coupled with Egypt’s growing demand for silk goods, could present new money-making opportunities in sericulture.

“Egypt currently uses 350 tons of natural silk annually,” said Osama Mohamed Ghazy, director of the Sericulture Research Institute, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture. “Only about one ton of this amount is locally produced, while the rest is imported.”

Ghazy told Al-Monitor that cultivating silkworms has great economic potential in Egypt because it can also contribute to growth in other sectors, such as mulberry tea production, cosmetics that use silk proteins and surgical sutures.