Foreign news on June 29, India and Egypt are striving to increase bilateral trade volume from the current US$7 billion to US$12 billion within five years. Both countries stressed the importance of considering a free trade agreement to further strengthen bilateral trade.
In the textile field, India is the main export market for Egyptian extra-long staple (ELS) cotton. Although Egypt needs to import fabrics for its garment industry, the market share of Indian supplies remains small. Similarly, India’s market share in Egypt’s clothing imports is also very small. As an important apparel exporter, Egypt competes with India in the global market.
Egypt’s cotton exports last year were US$71.892 million, accounting for 27.81% of its total exports of US$258.538 million. India is the second largest market for Egyptian cotton exports, after China.
Egypt’s fabric imports in 2011 were US$1,304.685 million. Although India is the second largest supplier after China, India supplies only 4.47%. During the same period, fabric imports from India were worth US$58.295 million, and imports from China were US$2.214856 million.
Egypt is Africa’s leading apparel exporter, putting it in direct competition with India in the global market. Last year, the African country’s apparel exports reached US$2.437 billion.
India has very little exposure to the Egyptian apparel market. Egypt imported $5.131 million worth of clothing last year, accounting for 2.24% of its total imports of $228.86 million. According to data, India ranks sixth in Egypt’s clothing imports, second only to Turkey, China, Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam. </p
