The Eyptian government to protect cotton cultivation has allocated 300 million EGP to buy the total cotton crop production during this season, Agriculture Minister Essam Fayed said.

This season so far about 200 million kilograms of cotton were produced. The government will pay each farmer 1,100 EGP ($170) for a quintal (100kg) of cotton grown in Upper Egypt and 1,250 EGP per a quintal of long staple cotton grown in the Delta.

He added that as long staple cotton is not in high demand since the world has begun to prefer medium and short staple cotton at lower prices as hence witnessing a decline.

The Cabinet is keen on saving national industries and on solving the obstacles faced by these industries. Cabinet’s decision is to save the textile factories from collapsing, said head of the Federation of Egyptian Industries Mohamed el-Sewidy.

The Egyptian textile industry depends on small and medium staple cotton, which Egypt does not produce.

In July, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab permitted the import of cotton into Egypt for a year.