Egypt’s cotton exports have risen 50.6 per cent during the second quarter of the agriculture season for the year 2017-18, according to a report by the government-run Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS).

The total exports of Egyptian cotton reached 508,000 metric kantars during the period between September 2017 and February 2018, up from 337,000 kantars during the same period last year. CAPMAS attributed the hike to the abundance of the ginned cotton crop.

A metric kantar is equivalent to 45 kilogrammes.

During the same quarter, CAPMAS added, the total amount of domestically consumed cotton reached 47,200 kantars, compared to 127,600 kantars last year, a 63 per cent decline caused by an increase in cheap cotton imports.

Egypt’s agricultural season starts in early September and lasts until the end of August the following year.

During the agricultural season of the year 2016-17, the North African country’s cotton exports rose 12.6 per cent, reaching 431,000 metric kantars, CAMPAS noted.

The Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation recently pointed to a 500,000 acre increase in the size of the country’s cotton cultivated area.