Egyptian cotton on the decline: The mixture of pure Egyptian cotton seeds with inferior Indian and American types, challenges marketing crops “due to the abating role of agricultural societies in collecting and setting a fixed price for cotton, [and] the emergence of parallel markets where some merchants control the cotton prices,” are just some of the reasons Egyptian cotton is in decline, according to Al-Monitor’s Ahmed Hidji. “The bad policies of the government caused the collapse of cotton,” said Al-Basha Idris, head of the Exporters Division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce.