Cotton production is plummeting in China, the world’s largest importer and consumer of the textile, says USDA. “Recent changes to China’s cotton policy resulted in lower prices and greater uncertainty for cotton farmers, who responded by shifting from cotton to other crops, such as corn and rice, that offered higher returns,” says the World Agricultural Production report. Cotton plantings in 2015 are estimated “at a record-low 3.63 million hectares (9 million acres),” down 17 percent from last year. The cotton crop, estimated at 26 million bales, would be fourth-fifths the size of the 2013 crop. China is trying to draw down massive state-owned cotton reserves. India will replace China as the world’s No 1 grower this year.
China is forecast to harvest a record 225 million tonnes of corn this year, 4 percent more than last year. Plantings have been on the rise for more than a decade, boosted by higher profits than other crops and favorable government policies, says USDA.