China’s production of cotton is down 9.3 per cent year on year. Total cotton-growing area in 2015 was down 10 per cent from 2014. China has a state stockpile of close to 11 million tons of cotton, due to a now-abandoned state scheme to support farmers. Efforts to sell some of its stocks earlier this year had limited success, partly because of weak demand for cotton fiber from the downstream market, a trend that has persisted for much of the year.

Poor summer weather pulled down yields. Weakening cotton prices since the beginning of this year damped cotton growers’ planting and caused a slump of the cotton planting area and output. Xinjiang usually produces around 60 per cent of China’s cotton. But high temperatures in the region this summer caused a high rate of shedding of cotton bolls, or pods containing the fiber’s seeds, reducing yields and the length of the region’s prized long staple fiber. Rainy weather and early cold weather later in the year further reduced output.

Output in other parts of the country was largely impacted by a smaller planted acreage, with provinces outside Xinjiang planting 16.5 per cent less cotton than in 2014.