SOURCING at MAGIC: Country Guide - Egypt

COUNTRY GUIDE: EGYPT

EGYPT

In 2019 Egypt exported $980 million under QIZ, the Qualified Industrial Zone agreement that allows Egypt and Jordan to export products to the United States duty-free, so long as these products contain inputs from Israel. That was just a portion of the $1,694 million that it exported in total; a six percent increase over the previous year. The nation’s vertically integrated supply chain offers complete production — starting with its legendary cotton production, but also including synthetic fibers — through spinning, weaving, and on through the apparel production process itself. While the world may first think of the nation’s ancient culture; Egypt is truly positioning itself as a modern-day apparel sourcing powerhouse.

Egypt has an ideal location for export: situated practically at the “center of the world,” it’s ideally placed on the northern tip of Africa, spanning into the Arab Peninsula; on the Mediterranean Sea, with easy access to the rest of the world via the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. Its 21 airports and 15 marine ports are just part of its well-developed infrastructure.

The International Trade Center and Egypt’s Ministry of Trade and Industry have also been collaborating on two programs that stimulate employment, income generation, and textile and clothing production competitiveness. The Global Textiles and Clothing (GTEX), and Middle East and North Africa Textiles and Clothing (MENATEX) programs promote exports in Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, with funding provided by the governments of Sweden and Switzerland. The programs, which began in late 2018 and end at the end of 2021, have each had impact on the Egyptian production sector. They work by supporting small and medium enterprises across the supply chain with training, coaching, and mentoring. They have also addressed concerns such as improving the social and environmental standards that have become essentials of the modern apparel market while introducing the region’s businesses to new markets and potential customers. Of course, they have also helped them find financing to make the move to more integrated services, to make environmental improvements, and expand into textile production where necessary.

As part of those programs, Egypt has been developing a more diverse industrial base of local suppliers, vertically integrating knitwear factories to handle everything from spinning yarns right up through sewing, embroidery and packing. Its already established vertically integrated woven factories are renowned for the production of dress shirts, suits, and denim.

Egyptian cotton is said to be the very finest in the world, so the Egyptian Cotton trademark is only licensed to 129 Egyptian manufacturers certifying their use of this manually harvested national treasure. Twenty-six Egyptian factories are certified to the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), the voluntary global standard for post-harvest processing which includes both environmental and social criteria. Apparel factories are also in compliance with global standards such as ISO, Oeko-Tex, OHSAS, and WRAP; as well as, of course, the Better Cotton Initiative. Egypt is the world’s sixth largest exporter of denim apparel the United States and puts the latest technologies to use for minimal impact on the environment; including ozone washing, “H2Zero” systems, and laser technologies.

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SOURCING at MAGIC is a domestic and international gathering of manufacturers, suppliers and service providers from apparel and footwear manufacturing, to textiles, materials, components, supply chain, and technology solutions – both in-person and online.

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