The intention of cotton-growing in China will go downward in 2015, expanding 7.5 percentage points compared to 2014. A survey conducted in January on 95 counties, 98 towns, 313 villages and 2,742 cotton growers shows that 41.4% of them will keep the same growing area as in last year, down 20.4 percentage points from a year ago; 5.9% of them will increase cotton-growing area, down 1.1 percentage point from last year; 41.6% of them will reduce cotton-growing area, 14.0 percentage higher than last year; and 11.4% said they have not decided, 9.0 percentage points higher than last year.

Three major cotton-growing regions all intend to grow less cotton, in which, the Yangtze River Delta area, the Yellow River Reaches and the northwest will reduce respectively 22.4%, 7.8% and 3.5%.

Lower return as a result of sharp declining price is the main reason causing the reduction of intended cotton-growing area. After the temporary cotton purchase and reserve policy being phased out, the purchasing price of seed cotton has been going all the way down and by January 2015, it had dropped by 30.7%. Meanwhile, the per unit yield of cotton in the Yangtze River Delta area and the northwest dropped significantly. Growing cotton is no longer a good deal for cotton growers. Since September 2014, the domestic cotton market has been very flat and cotton hardly sold.

The reduction of intended cotton-growing area is also related to the adjustment plan of cotton-growing area.

Source: China Textile Leader Express