Cotton sold to Chinese
By Enrique Rangel / Amarillo Globe-News Austin Bureau / 5-14-07AUSTIN - The magic of King Cotton lives on in West Texas. Just ask the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textiles.
The business organization from the world's most populated nation was in Austin on Friday to announce that even though China is the world's largest cotton grower it does not produce enough to meet its domestic needs. That's where West Texas comes in.
The 25-member Chinese delegation, mainly men wearing dark business suits and white shirts, announced outside the Capitol that it is buying $400 million worth of West Texas cotton.
More Pleased. "We import a lot of cotton, but one third of our imports are from Texas," Wang Shenyang, chairman of the chamber and head of the delegation, said through an interpreter. "And we hope to import more in the future."
Lubbock-based Plains Cotton Growers, Inc., could not have been more pleased.
"This is a huge deal," said Roger Haldenby, the organization's vice president of operations. "China is the largest consumer of cotton in the world. They buy more cotton than any other country."
50 Million Bales. China produces about 26 million bales a year, but its textile industry needs 50 million bales, Haldenby said. That's why the country needs to import large amounts of the crop.
There are 80 cotton producing countries in the world, but the United States, China and India account for half of the global market, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And in this country it is a $21 billion a year industry that generates 400,000 jobs.
Bright Future. For its part, the United States produces 21.6 million bales a year and the Lone Star State accounts for 6 million, or 28 percent of the total production, according to a recent study conducted by the Cotton Economics Research Institute at Texas Tech.
And the way the Cotton Research Institute sees it, the West Texas product has a bright future. "During the next decade, worldwide demand for West Texas' most important agricultural crop - cotton - is projected to grow by about 20 million bales," the study reported.
Growth in India. Texas is about the only bright spot in the U.S. cotton market because in the rest of the country production is expected to stagnate and by 2016 India will pass the U.S. and become the second-largest cotton producer, according to the report.
Rep. Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock, who accompanied the delegation and the West Texas hosts during their brief visit to the Capitol, said that although most of the cotton purchased is grown in the Lubbock/Plainview area, the deal is a boon for all of West Texas.
Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, R-Dumas, agreed.
High Quality. "In the Panhandle and in the South Plains we have quite a lot of cotton," Swinford said. "We're always looking for a buyer and we're glad to export our product."
Moreover, "this is a good chunk of the market plus it establishes that our cotton has the quality that the world wants," Swinford said. "And as China goes other countries will follow."
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