COTTON

Cotton is a soft fibre that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant. The fibre is most often spun into thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile. Cotton is a valuable crop because only about 10% of the raw weight is lost in processing. Once traces of was, protein, etc. are removed, the remainder is a natural polymer of pure cellulose. This cellulose is arranged in a way that gives cotton unique properties of strength, durability, and absorbency. Each fibre is made up of twenty to thirty layers of cellulose coiled in a neat series of natural springs. When the cotton boll (seed case) is opened the fibres dry into flat, twisted, ribbon-like shapes and become kinked together and interlocked. This interlocked form is ideal for spinning into a fine yarn.

India in World Cotton Industry

2004-2005 Production Est	Mill. Bales	% of World
China	30	27%
USA	22	20%
India	14	13%
World	110	100%

Factors Influencing Cotton Markets
There are many variables influencing the direction and growth of the global cotton industry. These include:

• Cotton's relationship with synthetic fibres;
  
• World economic growth and its impact on consumer textile demand;
  
• Seeking new consumption markets for cotton products; and,
• Fibre innovation to enhance the spinning ability of the raw cotton, with the aim of encouraging demand.
  

Important World Cotton Markets

• East Africa
  
• Tanzania
  
• Uganda
  
• Zimbabwe
  
• Uzbekistan
  
• West Africa
  
• Central Asia
  
• United States
  

West Africa and Central Asia are much greater than between the United States and other markets-in part because most West African and Central Asian cotton is exported, compared with only 40 percent of U.S. cotton (and 60 percent of Greek cotton). Prices in countries that export most of their cotton are more likely to converge than prices in countries where prices are subject to both domestic and international demand conditions.

MARKET SHARE POSITION OF COTTON FABRICS

Value in '000' $

COUNTRIES	2001-02	% COPY	2002-03	% COPY
	754,393	67	959,686	71
SWEDEN	4593	0	5171	0
HUNGARY	4202	0	4780	0
QATAR	1770	0	4000	0
KUWAIT	3976	0	3994	0
INDIA	3315	0	3701	0
PHILPINE	2781	0	3424	0
LITHUANIA	947	0	3255	0
IRAN	1105	0	2914	0
YEMEN	1912	0	2175	0
RUSSIAN FED	134	0	1785	0
IRISH REP	1259	0	1484	0
UK	58314	5	57389	4
CHINA	55029	5	48481	4
BANGLADESH	34865	3	48481	4
SOUTH KOREA	19779	2	13333	1
MALAYSIA	7630	1	6464	0
BAHREIN	5838	1	5237	0
OMAN	5511	0	4510	0
MAURITIUS	3721	0	3100	0
FINLAND	2839	0	2232	0
THAILAND	3003	0	1887	0
INDONESIA	1974	0	1483	0
DENMARK	2003	0	1397	0
AUSTRIA	2765	0	1236	0
SUB-TOTAL	983,658	87	1,174,834	87
OTHER COUNTRIES	147,170	13	170,816	13
TOTAL	1,130,828	100	1,345,650	100

The Cotton Advisory Board, in its meeting held on 22nd November 2004,has placed the 2004-05 cotton production at 213..00 lakh bales of 170 kgs each, as per State-wise details given below:

Area in lakh hectare/Production in lakh bales/Yield kgs per hectare
	2004-05	2003-04
States	Area	Production	Yield	Area	Production	Yield
Punjab	5.49	15	464	4.52	11	414
Haryana	6.26	16.5	448	5.26	11.5	372

History of Cotton

No one knows exactly how old cotton is. Scientists searching caves in Mexico found bits of cotton bolls and pieces of cotton cloth that proved to be at least 7,000 years old. They also found that the cotton itself was much like that grown in America today.

In the Indus River Valley in Pakistan, cotton was being grown, spun and woven into cloth 3,000 years BC. At about the same time, natives of Egypt's Nile valley were making and wearing cotton clothing.

Arab merchants brought cotton cloth to Europe about 800 A.D. When Columbus discovered America in 1492, he found cotton growing in the Bahama Islands. By 1500, cotton was known generally throughout the world.

Cotton seed are believed to have been planted in Florida in 1556 and in Virginia in 1607. By 1616, colonists were growing cotton along the James River in Virginia.

Cotton was first spun by machinery in England in 1730. The industrial revolution in England and the invention of the cotton gin in the U.S. paved the way for the important place cotton holds in the world today.

Eli Whitney, a native of Massachusetts, secured a patent on the cotton gin in 1793, though patent office records indicate that the first cotton gin may have been built by a machinist named Noah Homes two years before Whitney's patent was filed. The gin, short for engine, could do the work 10 times faster than by hand.

The gin made it possible to supply large quantities of cotton fiber to the fast-growing textile industry. Within 10 years, the value of the U.S. cotton crop rose from $150,000 to more than $8 million.