Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Cotton fell for the first time in eight sessions after the government reported slowing exports from the U.S., the worldΆs top shipper.

In the week ended Jan. 17, exports of upland cotton dropped 37 percent to 213,700 running bales from a week earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today. Prices climbed 9.8 percent in the past seven sessions, the longest rally in almost two years, on expectations of higher demand from China, the biggest consumer.

“There isnΆt an export number that couldΆve been high enough to sustain that rally,” Sharon Johnson, a senior cotton specialist at Roswell, Georgia-based Knight Futures, said in a telephone interview. “The market was primed for a sizable setback.”

Cotton for March delivery dropped 2.9 percent to settle at 80.52 cents a pound at 2:40 p.m. on ICE Futures in New York, the biggest loss since Oct. 23.

A running bale weighs 500 pounds, or 22 kilograms.