Export sales of upland cotton for the week ending 11/9/06 were a meager 167,700 running bales. Just three countries Turkey, South Korea and Indonesia accounted for nearly 85 percent of those sales-demonstrating the current lack of depth of the export market for U. S. cotton.
Shipments were only 146,600 bales. Quite possibly the 90,000 bale sale to Turkey included a portion of the stocks decertificated on Wednesday.
The New Year must see weekly sales move well above 250,000 bales to get on track with the USDA's export forecast of 16.2 million bales.