India, China set for cotton wars

India is the world’s second largest cotton exporter. While, due to the continuous dropdown of cotton output, India would probably change into an importer within three or four years. Thus, India textile factory would be inevitably forced to compete in cotton supplies with the world’s largest cotton importer China. Although India expand its planting area, but the cotton per unit yield has shrunk to approximately 475 kg/ha, 38 percent below the global average. Cause the Cotton Picking universally go on by hand, which differ from other major cotton producing countries, like United States and Australia, they go on picking by machines. Chief Financial Officer of Alok Industry Sunil Khandelwal said that: “In the coming three to four years, India’s cotton superfluous situation will disappear, textile factories either import high price cotton, or choose man-made fibers." Khandelwal said that, from the turnover perspective, India is the largest textile manufacturer country. By the end of September 2012, India’s cotton output will reach a record high of about 6 million tons, or 35 million bags, the weight of 170kg per bag, after which output will begin to decline. The data published by India government showed that China is the world’s largest textile exporter, which occupy 28.3% of last year's global market share, that is 6.6 times of India’s share of 4.3%. India corporations are competing with China and other Asian countries, such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Vietnam, for capturing European and U.S. textile and apparel markets. If India became a net importer of cotton, it will have to compete with Chinese enterprises to rush the cotton supplies. Khandelwal said: "We have competition with Chinese enterprises in other resources, in the near future, we probably have to compete with them for cotton.” Chinese experts agree with his statement, they said, the high-end Chinese textile industry will further stimulate the demand for cotton. Year of 2010 and 2011, China's cotton consumption is about 10 million tons, by contrast of annual output of 6.6 million tons. By 2015, China's cotton demand is expected to rise to 13 million tons. A Chinese senior official said in June that, it's very difficult for China to enhance output, which decreased 6.9% to 5.96 million tons last year. Chinese authorities have not officially set the target for cotton output in 2015. To the 2019-2020 year, India's domestic textile industry consumption is expected to reach 7.02 million tons, domestic residents to give up polyester, and clothing exports explosion, will greatly facilitate the demand for cotton. Cotton competition between the Asian giants will inevitably stimulate the global market price fluctuations.