China´s government expects 2008 cotton production will total 7.5 million tonnes, 1.6 percent less than the record 7.6 million tonnes in 2007, but the China Cotton Association said on Wednesday it expects a higher figure.

The National Bureau of Statistics of China, which is the world´s largest cotton producer, projected output at 7.5 million tonnes, a senior government official said on Monday.

"We think the official figure is too low. Our estimate for 2008 is 7.8 million tonnes," Gao Fang, secretary general of the industry association, told Reuters.

Last year the association also differed with the Statistics Bureau on the 2007 output. It put the 2007 cotton harvest at 8 million tonnes, a figure also used by China´s top price-setting body, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

The difference in the 2007 figures was because of an extra 400,000 tonnes of cotton from Xinjiang, the country´s largest cotton area, the NDRC said last year.

China, which is also the world´s largest consumer of cotton, will use less of the fibre this year as exports by textile mills have been hit by the global financial crisis, said Gao.

"Growth of demand will be lower than last year. If there is less demand from textile firms, the government will not issue more extra import quotas," said Gao.

China´s demand for cotton was about 10 million tonnes last year.

After several boom years, a sudden slump in the market meant that by the end of 2008 textile mills had failed to use 1 million tonnes of extra import quotas that Beijing had allocated to help them cope with demand, she said.

Slowing textile demand has also prompted the government to purchase a total of 2.72 million tonnes of domestic cotton, or nearly 40 percent of the domestic harvest, to shore up prices and help cotton farmers.

China´s cotton imports fell 14 percent to 2.11 million tonnes in 2008.

Source: Reuters