Uzbekistan: Farmers Harvest 3.7 MMT Of Cotton

Avatar for Matt Hopkins By Scott C. Lucas|28 November 2006

Uzbekistan’s 2006/07 cotton harvest is over, with Uzbek farmers harvesting 3.73 million metric tons (MMT) of seed cottonin total, which is 3.5% higher than the state production target of 3.6 MMT. Favorable weather conditions during the vegetation period and harvesting in September-October considerably improved the crop condition and allowed the farmers to go over the state target.

Regarding quality, private sector representatives currently do not expect any quality deterioration of the new crop. As for lint quality and its control, at the present time, there is a three-level system of cotton quality control in Uzbekistan. Control executed by the SIFAT (Uzbek Center for Lint Certification) pending the cotton certification procedure is followed by quality control executed by SIFAT at a storage terminal when accepting lint for storage — there are now 21 such cotton storage terminals in Uzbekistan with an total storage capacity exceeding 400,000 tons. Finally, control prior to the sales of lint from a terminal is executed by the buyer at the buyer’s discretion.

At the 2nd International Uzbek Cotton Fair held in Tashkent, the Minister of Foreign Economic Relations, Investments and Trade (MFERIT) declared the government’s plans to keep the state seed cotton production target at the same level it has been for the past few years.