Markets/Trade
- Jayashree Bhosale reports for India’s The Economic Times that India’s cotton acreage is likely to rise this year as late monsoon rains have sped up planting. Most of the major production areas have already reached the targeted acreage for the season or are close to it and planting continues to push along. However uncertainty about Chinese imports combined with larger production is likely to keep prices depressed.
- A Bloomberg report on The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Australia’s cotton production could fall by as much as 50% due to record drought afflicting major production regions. Current projections are for between 2 and 2.5 million bales next season compared to 4 million bales produced this season unless the region sees significant rains and crop prices increase.
- Pakistan’s The Express Tribune reports that Pakistan’s cotton farmers are demanding the government intervene and regulate the price of cotton being sold to mills, claiming mills are exploiting farmers by only buying at rates well below production costs.
Production
- Carey Gillam reports for Reuters that USDA has announced that it’s environmental impact statement of Monstanto’s new Roundup Ready Xtend system for cotton and soybeans showed the GMO crops should be approved. Critics are concerned that the new biotech crops will only exacerbate the problem of herbicide resistant weeds, but Monsanto sees USDA’s report as “a noteworthy sign of progress.” The new cotton varieties would be tolerant of Monsanto’s new Xtend herbicide which combines dicamba with glyphosate in order to help combat the growing number of glyphosate resistant weeds.
- India’s Business Standard reports that Texas Tech researchers have discovered that low grade cotton made into an absorbent non-woven mat can absorb up to 50 times its weight in oil, potentially providing an environmentally sustainable and commercially acceptable means of real-time control of oil spills.
