** Source: Interfax 6/1/95
Uzbekistan's cotton crop is developing fast, heralding a bumper harvest come late August - early September, according to Takhir Saifutdinov, the official in charge of cotton at the Uzbek Ministry of Agriculture.
Crop development in Uzbekistan, which is one of the world's largest cotton producers, is running 10 days ahead of its usual schedule across the entire cotton area of 1.5 million tonnes.
Cotton plants by late May were budding over a total area of 62,000 hectares, 4% of the total crop area. Plants with five-to-six leaves were reported over an area of 343,600 ha (23%), with three-to-four leaves over an area of 626,300 ha (42%) and one-to-two leaves over an area of 395,700 ha (26%), said Saifutdinov. Shoots alone were visible over an area of 69,500 ha (about 5%).
Saifutdinov said farmers had achieved faster crop development because they were fertilizing more and faster. Farmers have already made their first fertilizer applications to the entire crop area. Last year, fertilizer was applied to just half of the area. In the Andizhan, Bukhara, Ferghana, and Syr Darya regions, farmers have started making a second fertilizer application. Farmers have already thinned and weeded their entire area. Moreover, no re-sowing has been required, said Saifutdinov, again increasing the likelihood of a good harvest.
Yields, he said, could actually exceed targets of 2.7 tonnes/ha, never mind last year's average of 2.56 tonnes/ha.
Overall, Uzbekistan this year plans to produce at least 4 million tonnes of raw cotton, up from 3.9 million tonnes in 1994, despite a reduction in the cotton area to 1.5 million hectares from 1.54 million ha in 1994 and 1.87 million ha in 1980. Uzbek experts expect cotton area and output to stabilize at 1.5 million ha and 4 million tonnes over the next few years.
** Source: Interfax 6/6/95
Sethos AG of Switzerland has forged a joint venture, Saimex, with Makhalli sanoat, a corporation that until recently was the Uzbek Ministry for Local Industry, to complete and run a mill in the Andizhan region to make 4,400 tonnes of cotton yarn per year under a $40 million project.
The Swiss will hold a controlling 51% of the venture, which they formally established with Makhalli sanoat division Buned, and will supply and install all the equipment needed for the mill, which is 90% complete.
The venture will be financed under a $36 million credit line to be opened shortly by CFB, a German bank under Uzbek government guarantees. Sethos had pledged to supply and install the equipment within six months of receiving the credit and thus put the mill into operation in the first half of 1996. Under the venture deal, 90% of all the yarn will be exported with just 10% going to Uzbek textile mills.
Saimex will be the first Makhalli sanoat enterprise milling cotton fiber. The corporation is currently holding talks with a Turkish company to set up a similar venture in the Syr Darya region to spin 5,000 tonnes of yarn a year,
Uzbekistan currently mills just 15% of the fiber it produces from its annual harvests of about 4 million tonnes of raw cotton. The government hopes to raise that figure to 30-35% by the turn of the century.
**Source Interfax 9/13/95
Mechanized cotton harvesting has got underway in Uzbekistan. By September 11, the country, which is one of the world's top three producers of the commodity, had produced 536,505 tonnes of raw cotton, 13.41% of the 1995 target and much more than the 43,000 tonnes reported at the same time last year.
Uzbekistan, where farmers started hand picking cotton earlier, had planned to produce 4 million tonnes this year. Analysts now think it will bring in even more cotton than that.
The government, in an effort to encourage cotton production, has hiked prices for the crop to 60% of world levels and cut the share of output it takes under state orders from 75% in 1994 to just 60%.
This September there were 20,000 cotton harvesters working Uzbek fields, 5,000 less than at the same time last year. The Uzbek Ministry of Agriculture says local farm machinery maker Tashkentselmash will provide the extra harvesters needed by October 1.
Uzbekistan in 1994 produced 1.3 million tonnes of cotton fiber from 3.937 million tonnes of raw cotton. It shipped 510,000 tonnes of cotton fiber abroad for $766.5 million, 76% of its export earnings.
** Source Interfax 9/28/95
Uzbekistan's cotton harvesting is going faster this year than it has done for a decade. Farmers the Central Asian republic, one of the world's biggest producers of the commodity, by September 26 had already picked over 2 million tonnes of raw cotton, half as much as targeted for the whole season and half a million tonnes more than at the same time last year.
Officials at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food said farmers were bringing in 2-3% of the target 4 million tonnes every day thanks to good weather that set them off to an early start. Most of the crop should be in by October 15-20. If they weather holds it could be a bumper one, outstripping the target.
The signs are right for an increase in quality as well as quantity: by September 26 farmers had harvested 24,800 tonnes of high-value fine-fiber raw cotton, compared with 19,500 tonnes by the same date of 1994.
Uzbekistan is currently the world's third biggest exporter and fourth biggest producer of cotton. Last year it 3.9 million tonnes of raw cotton from which it made 1.3 million tonnes of cotton fiber. The government this year moved to encourage farmers to grow more cotton by cutting its compulsory state order from 75% to 60% of the target crop. Procurement prices have also been set at 60% of the world level in another effort to boost output.