Decline of Cotton Growing Continues

Azerbaijan finished picking cotton - "white gold". The area was praised in 70-90-ies of the last century, as if they collected hundreds of thousands of tons of harvest, bringing huge profits to the budget of the then Soviet Azerbaijan.

According to the operative data of the State Statistics Committee, as of December 1 ginneries collected and sold 40.6 thousand tons of cotton, which is 4.7% less than in the same period of 2013. The yield was 17.7 t / ha, which is 0.4 t / ha less than last year.

This year, the trend of reducing the acreage of cotton, which began in 2012 (29.2 thousand ha or minus 31.8%), has continued. For cotton there were allotted 22.9 thousand hectares of land (-2.6%). Farmers claim that the profitability of cotton production is very low because of the minimum purchase price - 410-420 manat per ton. Cotton companies also complain about the lack of state support for the industry and the declining trend of stock prices for raw cotton.

Note that in 2005, 112.4 thousand hectares of land were allotted under cotton and 196.6 thousand tons of it was picked.

During the first 11 months of this year ginneries produced 11,213 tons of cotton fiber (+ 21.5%) and about half of these products were stored in warehouses. Besides this, textile enterprises produced 10,926 tons of cotton yarn (-23.1%). -- 08B-