KULOB, September 30, 2009, Asia-Plus — The cotton-ginning factory, Mukhtor-S, in Khatlon’s has purchased 1,800 tons of raw cotton from local farmers at the rate of 400 U.S. dollars per one ton, Abdusamad Buydoqov, the head of the Kulob agriculture directorate said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
“Under such prices, farmers will gain no benefit, but taking into consideration problems with sale of last year’s cotton harvest farmers do not want to take risks,” Buydoqov said.
According to him, local cotton-ginning have not yet come to an agreement on single prices for processing of raw cotton.
“For example, cotton ginneries in the Hamadoni district have set the price of processing of one ton of raw cotton at $195, while cotton ginneries in Farkhor have set the cotton-processing prices at $196-$197 per one ton,” the Kulob agricultural official said.
He also added that this year’s cotton target for Khatlon’s Kulob zone had been reduced from 69,376 to 53,956 tons.
The Kulob zone has yielded only 14,219 tons of raw cotton by September 29, which is 13,748 tons fewer than in the same period of last year.
