Chinese cotton growers have lost out on 18 billion yuan (about 2.25 billion U.S. dollars) in revenues over the past four years due to the country importing 4 million tons of cotton,

This, Tuesday's Economic Information Daily reports, means that each of China's nearly 100 million cotton growers earned 200 yuan less a year, the report said.

Experts warn China's growing dependence on imported cotton will bring havocs to the growth of the country's own cotton industry and deny growers higher incomes.

Statistic showed the growth rate of China's domestic demand for cotton, fuelled by the rapid growth of the textiles industry and surging exports, has risen an average of 10 percent since 1998.

China's demand for cotton reached 9.4 million tons in 2005, causing a shortfall of 3.95 million tons. The textile firms then had to import cotton to meet the demand.

Meanwhile, China's cotton production was unstable and rose and fell with the fluctuations of cotton prices.

Guan Ruijie, deputy director of the Agricultural Department of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China, said that China has become a net cotton importer for several years and the imports were on the rise gradually.

Last year alone, China imported 2.57 million tons of cotton, which was one-third higher than the total cotton output of Xinjiang, the country's largest cotton producer.

Customs figures showed China's net cotton imports amounted to 4.14 million tons between January 2001 and August 2005, and the cost of imports hit 6 billion yuan.

The Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's pricing authority, forecast that the short supply situation will linger on in the next few years as the country's cotton production will be smaller than its consumption.

China will still have to import huge quantities of cotton in the next couple of years, the NDRC said.

Experts from the United States predicted that China's demand for cotton will reach 12 million tons by 2014, making up around half of the world's total output.

The Ministry of Agriculture said that cotton-growing has become a major income source for cotton growers, with income from selling cotton making up one-third of cotton farmers' cash income. The proportion could rise to above half for cotton farmers in Xinjiang.

According to industry insiders, half of China's cotton imports come from the United States. The U.S. cotton subsidy, which reportedly reached 3 billion U.S. dollars a year, leads to falling cotton prices on the world market and exerts pressure on China's cotton farmers.

This development trend, if continued, will be a severe blow to China's cotton industry, and particularly to cotton growers in Xinjiang, they acknowledged.

Guan suggested the government help Xinjiang expand its cotton-growing acreage by some 667,000 hectares to increase cotton output, thus boosting cotton self-sufficiency to around 80 percent and reducing imports.

Xinjiang will be capable of turning out 3.8 million tons of cotton a year, or half of China's total, within five years if it can get appropriate support from the government, he said.

Source: Xinhua