Sunday, August 29, 2010
BETUL CAL
ANTALYA - Hürriyet Daily News

The Turkish cotton production industry has pioneered the development of local industry, helped to form a sound infrastructure, founded many textile firms in Adana’s Çukurova region and employed thousands of textile workers ever since the foundation of the Republic.

However, while cotton was produced on an area of 3.5 billion square meters out of a total of 5.4 billion square meters of cultivable land in Adana between 1955 and 1970, it decreased to 2 million in the following years, according to Mutlu Doğru, co-president of the Adana Farmers Union.

Noting that domestic and international prices play a crucial role in cotton production in Turkey, Doğru added that Turkey has fertile land, favorable climate conditions and enough labor force to increase production and be the backbone of the world cotton market.

Despite the sharp drop in production in recent years, cotton authorities are hopeful for the 2010 harvesting year. Expecting a 20 to 25 percent increase in cotton production this year, they believe that Turkey will benefit much from the expansion of cotton production areas and rising interest in this agricultural branch.

Employment for 3 million

Sadettin Öztürk, head of the Nazilli Cotton Research Institute said that the cotton production sector employs some 3 million people, adding that abandoning the production of cotton means being unfair to the country’s fertile lands and large investments that the farmers have made in cotton agriculture equipment.

“Today, some 80 percent of Turkey’s textile production and exports depends on cotton. In addition, some 15 different byproducts can be obtained from cotton thanks to developed computerized technology. Cotton is also highly recommended by medical circles for use instead of synthetically produced materials.”

While the expectations of Nazilli Cotton Research Institute are for a 20 to 25 percent increase in cotton production this year, data from the Adana Commodity Exchange shows that the increase will be around 40 percent in Turkey, even 50 percent in the Çukurova region.

Seeded cotton yield in the region, which was around 34,000 tons last year, is expected to reach 50,000 tons this year. It remained around 400,000 tons in Turkey during the 2009-2010 harvesting year.

Indexes are positive

Moreover, cotton harvesting, which normally starts in the second half of September, will start at the end of August this year as a result of above-normal weather conditions, according to Mehmet Erkan, a cotton producer in Adana.

“This change is not however expected to negatively affect the cotton yield,” Erkan added.

While the indexes are positive for Turkey, it is not quite so in the world. It is estimated that in the 2009-2010 harvesting year, global cotton production lands will be decreased to 30.4 million hectares and the cotton yield to 23.6 million tons worldwide, the lowest figures since 2002-2003, according to report released by the International Cotton Advisory Committee.

The report also shows that there is an almost 7 percent rise in world cotton trading as a result of rising demand in cotton importing countries such as India and China.