37 Indian firms participate in Cairo fair

To showcase Indian yarns and fabrics with the aim of further enhancing the cooperation between interested Egyptian businesspersons and Indian exhibitors within the textile sector, as well as strengthening trade between the two countries in general, 37 Indian companies took part in the annual Cairo Fashion and Tex Exhibition, which was held from September 13-16 at the Cairo International Convention Centre.

The Indian ambassador to Egypt, Sanjay Bhattacharya, said that this year’s Indian exhibition was lead by the Indian Synthetic and Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC), in cooperation with the Indian embassy in Egypt. The exhibition attracted a number of Egyptian businesspersons, who were interested in the Indian textile products, resulting in fruitful discussions with them, and eventually creating win-win partnerships for effective business linkages in the near future. “Egypt and India enjoy very close and friendly relations, and both countries are very similar, which makes Indian products beneficial for the Egyptian market,” Bhattacharya said. He added that not only does India play a vital role in the textile industry globally being the world’s second largest textile supplier, but it also manufactures most of its textile machinery and hopes to benefit Egypt with them.

The textile industry is worth $120 billion in the Indian economy, and its exports are worth $40 billionn and are expected to reach $60 billion by 2021, according to Bhattacharya. India exported nearly $240 million worth of textiles and clothing products to Egypt in 2016. Man-made fibre textiles were one of the most important products in the export basket, valued at $97 million, along with cotton valued at $131 million, apparel valued at $2.32 million, Jute valued at $4.4 million and carpets valued at $0.36 million.