This year, our county’s cotton import increase dramatically. According to Shaoxing’s customs statistics, from January to July, our county’s cotton import reached 1980 tons, worth of 3.53 million U.S. dollars. Considering that no import in the same period of last year, the import is 77.1% higher than that in 2008.

In the past seven months, USA is the largest cotton import source of our county. The import volume is up to 574 tons, accounting for a half of the total cotton import of our county. Cotton import from India is 544 tons, accounting for 48.7%. The insiders analyzed that, as the textile and garment industries warm back rapidly this year, plus the domestic cotton output’s decline, the gap between the cotton supply and demand in our textile companies is getting wider. Besides, the cotton price in the international market is more competitive than that in the domestic market, companies have strong intention to import goods. “These factors caused our county’s cotton import to increase dramatically and drive the price to go up.” An insider said.

As the related person of Shaoxing Customs, as Indian government collected the export tariff on raw cotton and suspended the registration on cotton export since this April, the monthly cotton export of Shaoxing county was suspended from April to June, leading to no cotton import in three consecutive months. The suspension of cotton export from India makes the supply of cotton more difficult. But quoted from Indian government report released in Pakistan’s Business Chronicle on Aug. 18, Indian government would cancel the system of cotton export license and replace it by export registration procedure, and the new policies would take effect since Oct. 1 this year. We hope that this decision would ease the cotton supply of our county and stimulate the cotton export to rise sharply in the fourth quarter of this year.

The cotton trade in the international market totally depends on the sellers, so seller’s breaking the contract and low quality cotton are very clear. Hence, Shaoxing Customs reminded the cotton export companies of our county to adopt the diversified strategy in cotton import, and pay attentions to warning information released by the departments related to foreign trade and the industrial association to avoid the risks in trading. Moreover, we should strengthen the quality control on cotton import so as to deal with the issue on cotton which affects the quality of our county’s textile and garments.

Source: Shaoxing County Newspaper   Author: Wang Qiuli, Shen Kelei    Editor: Kong Qingping.