Lowered Expectations For Uzbekistan Cotton

Avatar for Matt Hopkins By Scott C. Lucas|6 March 2006

Based on information received from the trade, the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agriculture Service (USDA-FAS) forecasts Uzbekistan’s 2005/06 seed cotton production at 3.7 million metric tons (MMT) and lint accordingly at 1.2 MMT. These numbers are a shade below the 3.749 MMT officially estimated by the country.

Despite recent government plans to expand domestic consumption of lint to 50% of production within the next several years, Uzbekistan’s 2005/06 domestic consumption is forecast to drop to 250,000 MT (a 40,000 MT decrease) reportedly due to government’s plans to increase exports for foreign exchange.