The Chinese Cotton Production Monitoring Team carried out a survey in eleven provinces in early Oct. and below are its findings:
The fine weather was conducive to the opening of cotton bolls and to fiber fluffing in late Sept. But cotton procurement was in slow progress because farmers were dissatisfied with the low price. By the end of Sept., 46% of cotton was picked, parallel to the same period of last year; but only 8% of cotton was sold, a slip of 1/2 on the year-on-year basis; the procurement price averaged RMB5,41/kg, down RMB0.33/kg on the year-on-year basis.
By the end of Sept., 44.8% of cotton was harvested in the Yangtse River reaches, 49.3% in the Yellow River reaches and 43.4% in the Northwest, down 4%, down 2% but up 7.3% respectively on the year-on-year basis.
Meanwhile, 6% of harvested cotton were procured in the Yangtse River reaches, 5.1% in the Yellow River reaches and 13.4% in the Northwest, less than the same period of last year by 12%, 8% and 9% respectively.
Seed cotton procurement price was RMB5.37/kg in the Yangtse River reaches, RMB5.68/kg in the Yellow River reaches and RMB5.25/kg in the Northwest, down RMB0.2/kg, RMB0.2/kg and RMB0.5/kg respectively on the year-on-year basis.
