Egypt's textile and spinning companies are facing a sharp shortage in the materials they need for production, the Textile Workers Syndicate chairman said Tuesday.
At a press conference, syndicate Chairman Saeed al-Gohari urged the government to take immediate action to rescue the industry and its workers.
Some private sector plants have shut down because they are already unable to continue production amid such circumstances, al-Gohari said.
He said the government should allocate lands for cotton cultivation to meet factories' needs, pump new investments into the companies, reform financial and management structures, and counter dumping and smuggling activities to protect the local industry.
Observers believe that Egypt's cotton textile industry has been witnessing a continuous downturn due to insufficient government subsidization for cotton cultivation. Cotton is known to be Egypt's oldest crop.
Al-Gohari stressed on the necessity to develop cotton productivity which, he said, severely dropped over the past years because of reliance on imported cotton.
