Future of knitting segment in Egypt; Alexandria Fiber Co.

Abstract

Generally the fiber manufacturers just deal with the spinners or the agents who then deal with the spinners, but in this project we decided to go one more level further in the Acrylic value chain, 'The Knitters', with the intention to get a more detailed understanding of the Egyptian markets and its potential to be a major player in the markets around it. Despite Egypt being a part of many trade agreements and also its strategic location to serve European Union and MENA region and other African countries, the sweater knitters have not been able to capitalize much on that. A majority of them still are very small players just serving the areas in their immediate surroundings. The unorganized nature of the segment has had a deep impact on its productivity and put brakes on a possible phenomenal growth. In this project we take a more critical look at the sweater knitting segment in Egypt and understand their problems and dig out reasons for the lack of any leap of growth in the segment. By conducting a survey with the knitters across Egypt we have tried to analyze ways in which the segment could be restored on the track of development and how Birla Acrylic can playa role in it and benefit from it. The lack of any available data about the contact details of the knitters and also the non-availability of any industrial report or data even with the government agencies were the biggest hurdle of the project. However, after covering the main hubs of the knitting segment in Egypt and interviewing the knitters of those regions we have come up with a sample size that could be considered a rough representative of the total population of the knitting segment.