Uzbekistan sells 600,000 tons of cotton fiber in the first three quarters

Uzbekistan is the third largest cotton exporter in the world. In order to take advantage of rising international cotton prices, Uzbekistan reported 600,000 tons of cotton fiber for sale from this year’s total cotton production, the Uzbekistan Foreign Economics Department said.

At the opening ceremony of the annual cotton trade fair in the Central Asian countries, Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyayev said that the Ukrainian cotton harvest is good and he expects the cotton export amount will reach 500 million U.S. dollars.

Uzbekistan plans to reduce raw cotton exports in order to promote the domestic cotton processing industry. Uzbekistan plans to increase the proportion of cotton processing to 70% of production by 2015.

Compared with other cotton-exporting countries, Uzbekistan’s market situation is very good this year, because output in other countries has declined. China, Bangladesh, Iran, Pakistan and Russia are the main importers of Ukrainian cotton. Uzbekistan ranks as the sixth largest cotton producer in the world. The average output of raw cotton is about 3.5 million tons.