Farmers in distress as cotton prices touch new lows

23 Dec '08

2 min read

The cotton farmers across whole of China are feeling the brunt of fall in cotton prices. This was a development which was unexpected for most of them. Today, the situation has come to a stage where China has become a cotton surplus country from its earlier years where it needed to import cotton in huge quantities to feed its textile enterprises.

Cotton prices are seeing slide month to month. From a peak of Yuan 5.6 per kg in September, prices of the white gold are prevailing at just Yuan 4 per kg. This development has sent a sense of despair among a majority of cotton farmers who are obliged to sell even at these dismal rates to maintain their sustenance.

There are instances of some farmers who rented extra farm land to cultivate cotton with the hope to reap a bounty as has been witnessed in the preceding years. But their hopes have crashed due to the drastic fall in prices and are repenting, cultivating the extra land with cotton.

The other major factor to depress the cotton farmers is the fall in yield. Due to incessant and untimely rains the yield has fallen drastically by as much as 50 kg per mu. (1 hectare = 15 mu). The cotton procurement programme by the government has also not helped much in jacking up the prices.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - China

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