TASHKENT: Uzbekistan plans to reduce cotton output by 10 percent in the next five years, President Islam Karimov has said, in response to lower demand and prices at the world's fifth-biggest cotton exporter.
The Central Asian nation will reduce raw cotton production to 3.0 million tonnes by 2020 from 3.35 million tonnes in 2015, Karimov was quoted as saying in a speech published on his official website on Saturday.
Karimov did not say how this move would affect exports, but said it would free up irrigated land for vegetable farming.
"Another important factor is the sharp decline of prices and demand for cotton fibre on the world market," he said.
Cotton is one of Uzbekistan's main exports along with natural gas and the country sells about 60 percent of its harvest abroad.
But the country's output has been declining for years, partly because the government encouraged farmers to switch to grains, and Karimov's forecast is unlikely to surprise the market.
Uzbekistan ceased selling its cotton via the Liverpool Cotton Exchange in the early 2000s and has instead held annual cotton fairs in its capital Tashkent since 2004. Officials say this prevents speculation in the cotton trade and gains more profit for the state.
Uzbekistan signed contracts at the latest cotton fair for a total 700,000 tonnes of cotton fibre and finished textile products worth $800 million, a government official told Reuters last October.
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