While China will remain the world’s largest importer and consumer of cotton for the foreseeable future, the amount of fiber it imports in 2011 will be capped at 2.6 million metric tons, if reports from the China National Cotton Information Center prove accurate. Of that amount, 894,000 metric tons will be imported under a 1 percent duty and the remaining 1.71 million metric tons will be subject to sliding duties.

If 2011 imports are limited to that amount, it will represent a decrease of about 28 percent compared to 2010. From January through November of this year, China imported almost 2.4 million metric tons of cotton, an increase of more than 81 percent over the previous year.

While the country’s growing population and consumption are partially responsible for the rise in imports, another major cause is a decrease in domestic production in 2010, which the China Cotton Association estimates will drop by 2.1 percent to 6.65 million metric tons.
In an attempt to limit its reliance on imported fiber, Vice-Minister of Agriculture Wei Chao An said during a recent agricultural conference that China would try to increase its cotton acreage to 5.33 million hectares next year.