Fair weather helps cotton sowing

13 May '06

2 min read

Cotton sowing was completed on time throughout the country due to favorable weather conditions this spring. Therefore, government's target for seed cotton production remains unchanged at 3.6 MMT, and lint cotton production is estimated to reach almost the same levels as last year.

In production of cotton, larger than normal snowfall and close to normal winter rains have enhanced surface and ground water supplies for cotton production. Still, by April 30, cotton sowing had been completed on 100 percent of targeted planted area.

The government announced that planned area would be 1.391 million hectares including 104,000 hectares under plastic. Cotton lint production is forecast at 1.17 MMT.

In 2006 season, Uzbek farmers used Bukhara-6, Bukhara-8, An-Bayavut-2, Namangan-77 and Akdarya-2 local cotton varieties having unique characteristics for maturity, yield, and most importantly, disease-resistance.

Domestic consumption is expected to remain unchanged in MY 2006/07, although it is forecast to increase slowly each year by 5 percent as most of the newly constructed textile plants reach their full production capacity.

Government has often stated that it would like to consume more cotton production domestically, but it has had only limited success. Less than 30 percent of all cotton is consumed domestically.

Cotton exports are expected to decrease slightly with China and Russia remaining the traditional markets for Uzbek cotton.

Country's cotton exports increased in MY 2005/06 to 880 TMT after several years of declines. Last year farmers were able to harvest 3.749 MMT of seed cotton, which is 149,000 MT higher than the official state target.

The preliminary export forecast for MY 06/07 is 850,000 MT, assuming normal weather for the remainder of the growing season.

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USDA

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