Booming Guangdong Province imported 15,000 tons of cotton valued at 19.53 million U.S. dollars in January, a year-on-year growth of 52.5 percent and 66.4 percent, respectively.

Local customs sources said since China signed agreements with the European Union and the United States on China's textiles export, Chinese textile producers have been confident about foreign sales of the products this year. Their demand for cotton will increase steadily this year, the sources forecast.

Besides the strong domestic demand at home, the increase of cotton arrivals owed to the fact that cotton sellers from developed nations have shortened marketing channels for the goods. They endeavored to sell more cotton before August 1, 2006, when the subsidies on their cotton exports will be scrapped, as the WTO required.

The local customs sources said in January, cotton imports shipped directly to warehouses at the free trade zones in Guangdong soared 840 percent from the same month last year.

According to the China Cotton Association, China will be short of three million tons of cotton this year.

Source: Xinhua