Cotton output in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region topped 5.39 million tons in 2022, up 2,62,000 tons over the previous year. The autonomous region contributed 90.2 per cent of the country's total cotton output this year. The cotton planting area in Xinjiang edged down in 2022 to around 2.5 million hectares, accounting for 83.2 per cent of the national planting area. The cotton yield in Xinjiang averaged 143.9 kg per mu in 2022, an increase of 7.5 kg per mu over the previous year.

Xinjiang has ranked first in China for 28 consecutive years in terms of total cotton output, per unit yield, planting area, and commodity allocation. Xinjiang has seen mechanized and intelligent cotton planting in recent years, with machines doing over 80 per cent of the picking work.

Since the 1990s, Xinjiang has gradually become the largest cotton production base in China and an important producer of the crop throughout the world. Nearly half of the local farmers are engaged in cotton production. The use of cotton made in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region has been facing criticism in the wake of allegations of forced labor. It is difficult to rule on the legality of the entire process of manufacturing cotton products, which involves a number of stages, including cotton cultivation, spinning and sewing.