Cotton to Kind
Abd el-Rahman, 47
Basyoun · Gharbia
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For the first time in twenty years, I know the name of the person buying my cotton.
Abd el-Rahman farms four feddans of long-staple cotton outside Basyoun, land his grandfather worked before him. For most of his life the crop moved through three middlemen before reaching a ginner in Alexandria — every hand taking a slice, none of them offering a contract or a phone number he could call.
In the Cotton to Kind pilot, the hub introduced Abd el-Rahman to a Cairo-based ethical label buying directly. His margin per kantar rose 34%, and — quieter but bigger — he now knows in December what he'll be paid in June. That's the difference between guessing and planning, he says. Between farming for the market and being farmed by it.
