Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will further optimize its cotton planting structure and ramp up output of top-quality cotton products, with 16 groups of Xinjiang's Production and Construction Corps to exit from cotton planting, according to a recent notice released by the region.
The notice set the goal to consolidate Xinjiang's advantages in cotton planting while retaining the region's annual cotton output at 5.1 million tons.
It vows to strengthen cotton quality management, aiming to increase the proportion of high-quality cotton output in Xinjiang to reach 35 percent at the end of 2025, while trying to promote the integration of regional cotton market between the Production and Construction Corps and the region's other areas, and realize a unified cotton market by 2025.
The notice highlights the importance of optimizing regional cotton production, actively and orderly promoting the withdrawal of the 16 groups from cotton planting. According to the proposal, a total of 16 groups are expected to exit cotton planting at the end of 2023.
The notice, meanwhile, also pledges to stabilize the regional cotton price at around 18,600 yuan ($2570.82) per ton, from 2023 to 2025.
Xinjiang cotton has remained an attractive choice for domestic and international buyers despite Western media hypes over the so-called "forced labor" issue.
More than 100 domestic and foreign buyers have signed purchase deals worth 570 million yuan at the third phase of the 133rd China Import and Export Fair, commonly known as the Canton Fair, for cotton textile products sourced from the Xinjiang region in May.
In 2022, Xinjiang produced 5.39 million tons of cotton, an increase of 262,000 tons from the previous year, accounting for 90.2 percent of the country's cotton production.
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