960417

Global cotton

output seen

higher in 96, 97

FRANKFURT: Global cotton crops for the 1996/97 marketing year could reach 19.7 million tonnes, 400,000 tonnes more than in 1995/96, the U.S. National Cotton Council told German journalists on Wednesday.

Mark Lange, economic and information service director at NCC< said assuming normal weather and production, Turkish and Pakistani area increases should outweigh area reductions in India, Uzbekistan and Brazil.

He said India and Uzbekistan would devote cotton area to competing grains and Brazilian farmers would favour soyabeans.

China was also likely to plant cotton areas to grain.

U.S. plantings in 1996 were put at 6.2 million hectares, 10 percent below last year because low yields and pest problems had weighted down 1995 farmer earnings, Lange said.

The totals reflected a 10.4 percent fall in upland cotton to 6.1 million ha and a 24 percent rise in extra-longstaple (ELS) 107,300 ha, the highest sincce 1989.

Lange said cotton farmers were responding to lower earnings last year as well as taking a lead from the new farm bill which had introduced more market orientation.

In the current campaign, contractual prices of other crops in the U.S. had risen dramatically from year-ago levels while cotton prices were just four percent up.

The event was sponsored by the U.S. cotton industry's marketing arm, the Cotton Council International.

Supplies of Pima cottons in 1996, which account for two thirds of U.S. exports, were seen safequarded despite an area decline as Pima output would rise relative to others.

The U.S. in 1995 sold 12,000 tonnes of Pima cotton to Europe, some 15 percent of its total Pima exports and accounted for 40 percent of total EU longstaple consumption.

Per-capita annual cotton consumption of 15 kg in the U.S. was followed by 12 kg in Germany, 8.0 kg in France, 7.4 kg in Britain and 6.5 kg in Italy. Germany accounts for 70 percent of European consumption.-Reuter