By Mahmoud Fouly
CAIRO, Oct 9 (NNN-XINHUA) – At a spacious hall in an exhibition centre in Cairo, businesses from eight countries displayed in adjacent partitions, booths and pavilions, a variety of products that included yarns, textiles, fabrics and fashion-related accessories.
The businesses were participants of the 71st Cairo International Fashion and Textile Expo (Cairo Fashion and Tex), which ran from Oct 6 to 8, at the Cairo International Convention Centre.
According to Mohamed Sherif, chairman of Pyramids International Group, the expo’s organising company, besides Egyptian businesses, about 250 companies from China, India, Türkiye, Pakistan, South Africa, Jordan and Bangladesh participated in this year’s event.
With support from the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade, the expo aimed to boost fashion and textile industry development, by fostering business cooperation among participants, according to its organisers.
“This edition of the expo is very important, as it gathered a large number of foreign companies for the first time in Egypt, since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. High-quality fabrics and products were exhibited, in effort to make partnerships with Egyptian counterparts,” Sherif said.
At a large pavilion of El-Dabi Tex and El-Hoda Tex, an Egyptian textile company, fabrics of various colours were exhibited. Mahmoud El-Dabi, CEO of the company, who was busy talking to customers on some potential deals, said, this year’s Cairo Fashion and Tex had a special significance because it is the first such event to be organised after the COVID-19 pandemic and it brought together a number of countries with advanced fashion and textile industries.
“We exhibit our products, know about the products from other countries, and exchange visits with them,” he told Xinhua.
Highlighting the competitiveness of Egyptian textile products, he said, his company now supplies fabrics to Türkiye and several African countries.” He said, the Expo was important to him because his company currently tries to focus more on export instead of import.
“We focus on increasing our textile exports in the future, because the manufacturing and export of high-quality products are the foundations of renovation,” Sherif added.
At a booth of the Indian pavilion, dyed yarns made of recycled cotton, including regenerated knitting, weaving and melange yarn were on display.
“The concept of recycling is getting popular day by day,” said Puneet Goyal, the owner of the Indian company, Shivaay Overseas, adding that, the company produces more than 800 tonnes of recycled yarns every month, to meet the growing demand for “sustainable textiles.”
He stressed that the expo offered a good opportunity for his company to market its recycled yarns in Egypt.
Several Egyptian customers and potential partners were visiting Chinese companies at the expo, including Changshu Yijia Textile Co. Ltd., Guangzhou Nadesion Textile Co. Ltd. and KLF Textile.
“China is surely distinguished in handmade products, and there are many new designs originating from China,” said Hamada Al Alian, an Egyptian fashion designer, and producer of wedding and night-out dresses.
“The materials and the new designs on display at the Chinese pavilion are impressive. It presents new fashion elements,” the fashion designer told Xinhua, adding, the expo saves him the trouble of travelling to other countries to find new materials and styles.– NNN-XINHUA
