China's cotton imports have seen a year-on-year decline of 27 percent in May 2011, according to the data released by the country's Customs department. Cotton imports in May this year were 145,000 tons, as against 198,000 tons in the corresponding period last year.
During the initial five months of 2011, the country imported 1.206 million tons of cotton, registering a year-on-year decline of 11.7 percent.
However, when seen in the context of 2010 cotton year ending August 2011, China has imported 2.092 million tons of cotton in the nine month period, showing a year-on-year rise of 9.2 percent.