Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Oct. 15
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov instructed to stop selling cotton fiber to foreign countries, the local TV channel Altyn Asyr reported.
This issue was raised during the extended meeting of the government of the country.
"As the president pointed out, it is necessary to switch to full processing of cotton fiber and stop selling raw materials to foreign countries," the message says.
President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov drew attention of the relevant departments to the slow pace of reforms being implemented in agriculture, which affects the results of the work carried out in this area.
The president stressed that it is necessary to harvest the entire cotton crop, to the last cotton boll, without loss, the national TV channel reported.
In Turkmenistan, 545,000 hectares of land have been allocated for cotton growing. It is planned to pick 1,050 million tons of cotton this year, including 207,000 tons in the Akhal region, 230,000 tons in Dashoguz region, 300,000 tons in Lebap region, 313,000 tons in Mary region.
Last year, the contractual obligations were over-fulfilled, and over 1.1 million tons of raw cotton were picked. The cotton constitutes a weighty item of export of Turkmenistan and is a highly-demanded raw material for dozens of modern enterprises of the dynamically developing textile industry in the country. At this stage, up to 70 percent of the cultivated raw cotton are processed by the national textile industry.
The textile industry of Turkmenistan is represented by a wide range of exported products - from cotton fiber and yarn to finished garments and knitwear, which are produced by the largest textile complexes in Central Asia, located in the capital and in all regions of the country.
A significant part of the products of Turkmenistan supplied abroad are home textiles, sportswear and jeans, produced under the world-famous trademarks IKEA, Puma, Wal-Mart, Lidl, Bershka, Pull & Bear, River Island, Cosco.