With around 100,000 hectares of land in the country being under cotton cultivation, Iran is likely to reap around 200,000 tons of raw cotton during the ongoing calendar year, said Hassan Hosseinpour, an official at Iran's Ministry of Agriculture.
According to Mr. Hosseinpour, the country foresees a production of 65,000 tons of refined cotton during ongoing calendar year ending on March 20, 2014, reports Azer News quoting ISNA.
However, the domestic textile industry is enduring shortage of refined cotton as domestic production hardly meets around half the country’s annual refined cotton requirement of 120,000 tons, he added.
According to the Association of Iranian Textile Producers, legally or otherwise the Iranian textile market each year imports around 40 percent of its requirements.
Cotton output in Iran has been decreasing consistently over the years from 237,322 tons in 1974 to 99,066 tons in 1979 and as low as 57,044 tons in 1980. However in recent years, there has been significant increase in production of cotton in the country, with 113,218 tons in 2003 and 119, 750 tons in 2005.
In terms of cotton acreage, the area for harvesting cotton in the country has also been continuously declining over the years. In the year 1965 cotton was cultivated on 380,412 hectares of land, which declined to 145,000 hectares in 1980 and 158,000 hectares in 2005.
Cotton in Iran is produced in the provinces of Khorasan Razavi, South Khorasan, North Khorasan, Gorgan and Fars.
