URUMQI, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- The cotton output of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region exceeded 5 million tonnes, accounting for 84.9 percent of the total in China, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The planting area of cotton in Xinjiang reached about 2.54 million hectares in 2019, accounting for 76 percent of the country's total, the bureau said.

Xinjiang has ranked first in the country's total cotton output, per unit output and planting area for 25 consecutive years, according to local authorities.

The production in more than 90 percent of cotton fields in northern Xinjiang has been mechanized, and the mechanization rate of cotton harvesting in southern Xinjiang is also increasing year by year, said the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Xinjiang.