Cotton endangered by increasing imports

29 Mar '06

1 min read

Increasing cotton imports have affected Chinese cotton growers as they suffered a loss of 18 billion yuan (about US $2.25 billion) over the last few years.

During this period, the country imported 4 million tons of cotton.

According to industry experts, from around 100 million growers, each of them earned 200 yuan less per year.

If the dependence on imported cotton persists, future of country's own cotton industry will be at at stake.

China's demand for cotton reached 9.4 million tons in 2005, causing a shortage of 3.95 million tons. Therefore, textile firms had to rely on cotton imports to meet the demand.

Last year, China imported 2.57 million tons of cotton, which was one-third higher than the total cotton output of Xinjiang, the country's largest cotton producer.

Customs figures showed China's net cotton imports accounted for 4.14 million tons between January 2001 and August 2005, and the cost of imports hit 6 billion yuan.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's pricing authority, predicted that this situation of cotton scarcity would continue for the next few years as country's cotton production would be less than its consumption.

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