Trade and Industry Minister Tareq Qabil has applied an export fee of LE3,500 per ton of clippings and scrap fabrics in order to save raw materials and protect the labor-intensive textile industry.
Qabil said the textile factories requested such a levy, adding that the decision was endorsed by the Holding Company for Cotton, the Textile Export Council and the Flax Company.
The Textile Export Council said waste from home furnishings is recycled to produce thick yarn used by small and medium-sized furniture factories.
The Businessmen Association, meanwhile, has recommended that the fee be increased by 25 percent.
The minister said the export of waste fabrics has increased over the past three years, from 43 tons in 2013 to 294 tons in 2015, adding that producers prefer to export waste fabrics because they sell the ton for LE9,780, as opposed to LE6,080 in the local market.
With the application of this new fee, the hope is that people will have more of an incentive to sell locally, as the margins for export would shrink considerably.
