The objectives of this study were to assess the cotton quality and grading systems in Egypt and to recommend improvements.
Findings:
· High-quality cotton has some measurable characteristics, some un-measureable characteristics. Quality also depends upon the absence of trash and contaminants.
· Foreign spinners consider Egyptian cotton to have excellent spinning qualities, but they warn that the presence of contaminants, especially synthetic fibers, endanger this good reputation.
· Foreign spinners prefer a simple, numeric grading system for Egyptian cotton.
· Other countries that produce ELS cotton have much simpler grading terminology and much fewer grades.
· By the 1990's the grades actually received by the lint cotton produced in Egypt had collapsed into a narrow range. This was due to the nationalization of production and marketing systems and the subsequent lack of attention to quality and to the incentives needed to produce quality cotton.
· The collapse of grades over time implies that all of the cotton is put 'in the same sack.’ thus, the good cotton is mixed with the poor cotton, which lowers the overall spinning value of the cotton.
· The premiums paid for high grades of seed cotton in Egypt have, for many years, been small, and the penalties for poor cotton have also been small, thus providing small incentives to produce and trade high-quality cotton.
· The current campaigns by the GOE to eliminate contaminants are helpful but have not eliminated contamination. These campaigns must be coupled with better market price premiums for clean cotton and market penalties for contamination.
· Many private seed cotton buyers in the 1998-99 season were avoiding low-value cotton. Continuation of this practice will widen the quality price premiums.
· The large number of cotton producers in Egypt complicates the problems of the MALR in
extension efforts to train producers in improved production and marketing techniques.
· It appears that CATGO is understaffed and its cotton classers are overburdened by volume and, hence, lack sufficient time to do the best possible job of grading, particularly at the sales rings.
· CATGO now performs HVI tests on all lots of lint cotton.
· Ginners lack the flexibility to increase their profits by improving the quality of cotton in ginning.
· The GOE has recently ordered the installation of trash analyzers at gins.
· The traditional farfarra methods of blending cotton for export may be adding, instead of removing, contamination.
· Repressing of bales for export at Alexandria is becoming expensive, but alternatives are being found, such as more selective buying of seed cotton and seed cotton blending, and baling for export at the gins.
· Most people in the trade feel that free markets and free market pricing will improve quality price
premiums and hence will improve cotton quality.
Recommendations:
· To improve cotton quality, the GOE should continue to play its critical role in breeding, seed certification and production, grading, and inspections at sales rings and gins.
· The GOE needs to play a larger role in the future in providing timely market information to producers, traders and exporters.
· The Egyptian cotton grading system should be simplified.
· Exporters should consider supplementing the grading system by providing buyers with reliable, standardized, HVI results.
· CATGO should distribute the results of HVI tests on the current cotton crop as widely and quickly as possible during the marketing season.
· CATGO graders need to spend more time grading seed cotton. This will result in more accurate grading and will impress upon farmers the importance of quality.
· The GOE should sustain and enhance its campaigns with producers at sales rings and at gins to control contamination in cotton.
· The GOE should attempt to remove synthetic sacks from the agricultural scene to keep synthetic fibers from contaminating the cotton.
· The MALR should expand its extension efforts to educate producers in production, harvesting, post-harvest handling, and marketing techniques that improve cotton quality.
· The MALR should continue its efforts to improve seed quality through the expansion of seed delinting and treatment, through continued reduction in the number of varieties grown, and increases in bonuses paid to producers for seed multiplication.
· The GOE should consider offering a special bonus for the production of planting seed from the first picking.
· Gins should increase efforts to clean seed cotton with manual methods and should supplement manual cleaning of seed cotton with new mechanical technology to reduce contamination prior to ginning.
· The GOE should continue moving toward free markets and privatization of publicly owned companies in the cotton subsector. This includes trading, ginning, spinning, weaving and ready-made garment firms. Quality premiums at the spinning and weaving level will result in higher quality premiums for seed cotton.
· The GOE should make a commitment to stop setting ginning charges once the privatization of gins is complete.
· In the long run, the price premiums for grades, and differentials between varieties, should be set in a free, competitive market, not by the Government.
Ronald Krenz Abt Associates
William Breginc Galal El Rifai GTZ
Adel Mostafa Nabil El-Sentrecy Mohamed Messelhi EQI
