Chinese Cotton Planting Acreage To Decrease 1.5% In 2024
The China Cotton Association conducted the second phase of the 2024 cotton planting intention survey among a total of 1,997 designated farmers in 10 provinces and the Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
The survey results show that the country’s intended cotton planting area in 2024 is 41.12 million acres, a year-on-year decrease of 1.5 percent, the same as in the earlier year.
The intended area in Xinjiang decreased by 1.5 percent year-on-year, and the decrease was 0.2 percentage points as against previous year.
The intended area in the Yangtze River Basin declined by 6.7 percent, an expansion of 4.5 percentage points as against last year.
However, the intended area of the Yellow River Basin increased by 2.5 percent, but the hike declined by 0.8 percentage points from the previous year.
In recent years, the cotton planting area in China has continued to decline, mainly due to the difficulty in achieving large-scale mechanised planting and low cotton planting yields.
The acreage of some cotton farms has reduced, but the decline is significantly narrower than last year.
In the Yangtze River Basin, cotton acreage continued to decrease due to poor returns from cotton farming.
In the Yellow River Basin, due to high cotton prices last year and relatively stable profits, some farmers increased their planting area.
Among the cotton farmers surveyed, acreage of 70 percent remained unchanged; 10.6 planned to reduce cotton planting area; 5.8 percent planned to increase, while 6.4 percent were still unclear.
The intended area for cotton planting in Xinjiang’s cotton areas in 2024 is 36.677 million acres, a year-on-year decrease of 1.5 percent and sowing is expected to start in mid-to-late April.
The intended area for cotton planting in the Yangtze River Basin is 1.641 million acres, a year-on-year decrease of 6.7 percent, while in the Yellow River Basin it is 2.373 million acres, a rise of 2.5 percent.
