Cotton was never native to Egypt, it was brought over in the early 1800s. A century later a visiting Frenchman L.A Jumel was first to cultivate the crop. He discovered some teetering cotton plants in a beautiful Cairo garden that inspired an idea.
After collecting samples from all over the cotton-producing world, he experimented a little and created a luxurious extra-long staple cotton. Egypt’s ruler was bowled over by the results.
Egypt’s unique climate as it turns out, was the catalyst that helped Jumel cultivate a crop with unusually long fibers which produces a silky-soft, durable fabric. Long staple Egyptian cotton is also the most flexible, which enhances longevity.
Fast-Forward to the American Civil War 40 odd-years later and the reputation of Egyptian cotton began to take shape. Civil war drove desperate Europeans to find another source for cotton to keep their mills running. This resulted in prices to rise worldwide and demand to skyrocket. Firmly placing Egyptian cotton at the top.
Looking back it might seem that it was inevitable for Egypt to conquer the cotton market with the hungry English mills close by and its foothold on the Mediterranean. Few countries could rival the Nile river delta. It was once considered the breadbasket of the Roman Empire for shear fertility of land.
By the early 1960s, Egyptian cotton accounted for roughly 10% of global exports, and throughout the 70s and 80s, Egypt regularly produced more than half a million tons of cotton a year.
In recent years however, the historical crop took a deep dive in production. In 2016 total cotton production hit an almost 100-year-low for Egypt. Many reasons are attributed to this fall including mismanagement of seeds, mislabeling by large retailers and suppliers, and the huge accumulation of debt to foreign banks. The latter eventually lead to British colonization in 1882.
