A survey of international and Australian cotton spinning mills showed that fibre quality of Australian cotton needed to improve to meet international requirements, leading industry bodies said on Wednesday.
Australia's 2002/03 drought, the resulting smaller cotton crop and increased competition from higher quality US and Brazilian cotton were making it difficult for Australian cotton to recapture volume in traditional markets, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)'s Textile and Fibre Technology Division said.
This was despite Australian cotton's reputation as a high quality fibre, it said.
CSIRO, the Australian Cotton Co-operative Research Centre and the Australian Cotton Shippers Association surveyed 32 mills, including eight in Japan, eight in South Korea, seven in Thailand, four in Indonesia and five in Australia.
With 75 percent of the Australian crop exported to Asia, mainly Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and South Korea, the mills surveyed consume over 183,850 tonnes, or more than 810,000 bales, of Australian cotton a year.
The survey showed that Australian cotton needed to improve width, fibre content, fibre strength and consistency of properties over a sales contract, the industry groups said.
It also showed that Australian cotton rated highly on fibre properties such as contamination, classing grade, staple length, colour, spinning ability, trash content, maturity and extension.
Australia is normally the third largest cotton exporter in the world, after the United States and Uzbekistan.