Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 4
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
From the beginning of the current Iranian year (started March 21, 2018) to the end of the 9th month, 47,000 tons of cotton was imported to Iran. A minimum of 13,000 tons of cotton should be imported by the end of the year, Mohammad Hossein Kaviani, CEO of Iran's Cotton Fund, told the Young Journalists Club (YJC), Trend reports.
According to Kaviani, importing 60,000 tons of cotton is needed to provide for the textile industry in Iran.
Kaviani added that cotton production in the Razavi Khorasan, South Khorasan and Golestan provinces dropped due to pests and hot weather, despite the 10% increase in cotton planting area during the current planting year.
"More cotton should be imported in the first half of next year (started March 21, 2018), given the 20% reduction in cotton production compared to last year. Otherwise, the cotton industry will be faced with a shortage of cotton," he said.
Kaviani added that cotton import was a serious blow to the domestic cotton production back in 2003. The textile industry had to import cotton due to the world cotton prices falling below $1 during the said period.
"However, there was excessive production of cotton in Iran. Due to import licensing and the cotton farmers’ lack of interest in this area, the total cotton cultivation area decreased," he said.
The company CEO said that the country has a potential of producing about 500,000 tons of processed cotton, but the excessive import of cotton over the past few years has resulted in cotton farmers cultivating other crops.