Private-sector contracts for cotton in the 2025/2026 season rose 58% from the previous season, driven by companies returning to auctions after a marketing crisis last season, Ratiba Mahmoud, director of the cotton trading system, told Al Manassa.
Mahmoud, executive managing director of Misr for Cotton Trading and Ginning Co., said companies contracted about 949,000 kantars of cotton this season—up from 600,000 kantars in 2024/25. A kantar, the official Egyptian unit, equals roughly 45 kilograms.
Total quantities sold through auctions since the start of the season in September reached 1.1 million kantars worth 10.1 billion Egyptian pounds (about $215 million), she said. The season is nearing its end with only two auctions left, expected to be held by early March.
According to data from the cotton trading system, the planted area this season totaled about 195,000 feddans, including 22,000 feddans in Upper Egypt and 173,000 feddans in Lower Egypt, with an estimated production of about 1.5 million kantars.
A senior source in the cotton system told Al Manassa that weaker private-sector contracting last season was due to the marketing crisis triggered by auction prices above global prices, pushing several companies to stop buying before the Ministry of Finance intervened and covered price differentials of about 2,000 pounds per kantar to ensure the crop was sold.
The source, who asked not to be named, said the Ministry of Finance agreed at the time to pay the pricing gap between the auction opening prices of EGP 8,000 for Upper Egypt and EGP 10,000 for Lower Egypt, bringing them up to the guaranteed price set by the Cabinet.
The source added that this season saw cotton sold in line with global prices, with incentives paid to farmers based on cleanliness and grade, putting prices at between 9,200 and 9,800 pounds per kantar in Lower Egypt and about 7,000 pounds per kantar in Upper Egypt.
A document reviewed by Al Manassa stated that 1.186 million kantars have been sold at auction since the start of the season with a total value of 10.12 billion pounds. The top three buyers accounted for more than half the market.
Abu Madawi topped the list with 228,400 kantars worth 2.101 billion pounds, followed by Misr for Cotton Trading and Ginning Co. with about 223,000 kantars worth 1.987 billion pounds, then Al-Ikhlas with 198,600 kantars worth 1.811 billion pounds.
In the same context, a senior source at the Cotton Exporters Union told Al Manassa that total export contracts in the 2024/2025 season rose to about 38,700 metric tons, up from 18,100 metric tons in the comparable period of the previous season.
The source added that contracts in the twenty-third week alone totaled 706 metric tons, with weekly monitoring of contracting activity and prices to support transparency and provide data to members of the export system.
Egypt began piloting the auction-based cotton trading system in 2019 before rolling it out nationwide in 2021, with the government, through Misr for Cotton and Ginning Co., acting as an intermediary between farmers and companies.
