China's top cotton area sees higher

China's top cotton growing area of Xinjiang in the north-west will likely have a bumper crop this year even though the harvest could be delayed by two weeks, industry officials said. "Weather should not be a problem and we expect Xinjiang's cotton output to grow slightly to 3.2 million tonnes," said Dong Shuzhi, assistant to the president of Jinshi Futures Co Ltd, who is assessing crops in the region.
Xinjiang produces nearly half of China's total output. This year the region had fewer than normal periods when temperatures stayed above 30 degrees Celcius for four days or longer, slowing the maturation of the cotton bolls, said Liu Junfeng, the head of the No 143 farm belonging to the powerful Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
"This year the harvest is pushed back more than 10 days, to around September 15-20. The crop usually matures in 126 days, but this year it is not mature yet," he said, standing in a field were only a few white bolls showed among the deep green.
Vast cotton fields in northern Xinjiang were empty of labourers on Tuesday, as migrant labourers delayed their annual trek to the region. Liu said harvest estimates could be cut if cooler weather arrives again, although so far the autumn has remained relatively warm.
A cold spring had delayed planting of many crops in China, including cotton, causing worries particularly for late-season rice and corn in the north-east, where early frost is common during the harvest season, but early frost is not a threat to cotton in Xinjiang due to the dry weather, analysts said.
Excessive rains in central parts of the country in June and this month have destroyed some cotton crops in Shandong and Hebei and output in certain areas could fall by 10 percent, analysts said. Before the damage, China's total harvest was estimated at 6.9 million tonnes. China's cotton output fell 14.6 percent in 2009 to 6.4 million tonnes.
A rapid recovery of China's textile production, coupled with tight supplies, had sent domestic cotton prices up more than 20 percent so far this year to a record high. Last week, the government began releasing 600,000 tonnes of cotton from its reserves to ease price gains and supply shortage.