Weekly Report: Spring Ploughing and Sowing Commenced, Growers Expecting Supportive Policy

Cotton growers are busy at preparation for spring ploughing and sowing as temperature continued to rise. During middle and late March, cotton seedling pot nutrition started in Yangtze region, followed by spring ploughing and sowing in Yellow River region and Xinjiang. In the past years, unit yield of cotton was better in Xinjiang than other cotton regions due to advantageous natural conditions there, therefore, central government decided to take trials in Xinjiang on cotton target price subsidy. Cotton planting preparation in Xinjiang processed in the normal way. In inland regions, cotton acreage continued to decline due to reduced profits and changed reserve policy this season, however, some traditional cotton coverage maintained due to local soil conditions. As spring sowing processes, both cotton farmers in Xinjiang and inland expect more details on cotton policy for further arrangement of the production.
Last week (10th-14th March), CC Index 3128B settled at 19,445 Yuan per ton, unchanged with last week. Reserve release target for the week was 123,100 ton, and the actual transaction was 38,800 ton, 31.6% by percentage of the target. By 14th March, reserve cotton of 684,700 ton was sold by transaction percentage of 36.4%.
Reserve purchase for 2013/14 season continued to decline, for last week 91,360 ton was bought by reserve, 19.4% less over the week, comprising by 18,400 ton in Xinjiang and 64,080 ton in inland. By 14th March, reserve cotton purchase in 2013/14 season totaled 6,126,000 ton, including 3,988,000 ton in Xinjiang and 2,138,000 ton in inland. Currently, seed cotton buying activity was only seen in Yellow River regions by a few gins. According to CCA cotton processing branch, for the week, seed cotton equivalent for 3128 lint had the price of 8.36 Yuan per kilo in Hebei province, 0.06 Yuan down; Shandong province had 8.42 Yuan per kilo, 0.02 Yuan down, Henan had 8.73 Yuan per kilo, 0.06 Yuan down.
As for import cotton, by weekend FC Index settled at 99.05 cent/lb, 0.64 cent down over the week.