China expects to see a slight year-on-year increase in cotton
yield for 2007, despite an international decline in output and
rising demand, the Ministry of Agriculture said on
Tuesday.?
The area of cotton sown nationwide also increased slightly over
last year, a ministry spokesman on market information added,
declining to give an exact figure.?
The spokesman said continuous rain and low temperatures haunted
some cotton production areas in the early stages of growing this
year, but the weather later turned favorable.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China produced
6.73 million tons of cotton in 2006, a growth of 17.8 percent over
the previous year. The area of cotton sown stood at 5.4 million
hectares last year, 340,000 hectares more than the previous
year.
General Administration of Customs figures show China imported
1.66 million tons of cotton in the first eight months, a decrease
of 45.06 percent from the same period last year. The imports were
valued at US$2.27 billion, down 43.77 percent. The trade deficit
stood at US$2.25 billion. Imports between September 2006 and August
2007 amounted to 2.28 million tons, down 44.6 percent.
The International Cotton Adversory Committee (ICAC) forecast the
2007-2008 period would see a global cotton yield of 25.41 million
tons, down 2.3 percent 2006-2007 period. But the cotton consumption
worldwide would reach 26.97 million tons, up 2.5 percent. With
yield failing to meet demand, the global inventory of cotton will
decrease 12.5 percent to 10.93 million tons, the lowest since the
2004-2005 period.
(Xinhua News Agency October 23, 2007)
