Tajikistan Met with Andrey Gitchuns and Exchanged Views on Its Membership of ICAC

Tajikistan’s Minister of Agriculture Qosim Qosimov met with Andrey Gitchuns, representative of the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), and exchanged views on Tajikistan’s membership of the ICAC, the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) press centre said, news.tj reported.

Mr. Qosimov said that Tajikistan was interested in solving cotton issues related to trade rules, cotton quality assessment, phytosanitary certification, and expansion of demand, particularly so because the ICAC has predicted a 11 percent decline in world cotton production in 2013-14, the MoA pres centre said.

Mr. Gitchuns said the entry of Tajikistan to the ICAC will give it an access to the community of cotton producing services, as well as to statistics and technical information. The ICAC membership would also help in raising awareness of cotton issues and strengthening cooperation on issues of mutual interest between the governments and industrial segments, he added.

Cotton is an important contributor to Tajikistan’s agricultural sector and national economy. It is grown on 45 percent of the country’s irrigated arable land, accounting for 60 percent of Tajikistan’s total agricultural output, and provides livelihood to 75 percent of rural population.

Cotton is also an important source of government’s tax revenue and export earnings for Tajikistan. Turkey, Russia, Latvia and Iran are the major importers of Tajik cotton.

Headquartered in Washington D.C., USA, the ICAC is an association of governments of cotton producing, consuming and trading countries. It works to raise awareness of critical issues involving cotton, and facilitates cooperation on international issues related to the cotton economy.

ICAC provides statistics on world cotton production, consumption, trade and stocks and identifies emerging changes in the structure of the world cotton market. It also serves as a clearing house for technical information about cotton and cotton textiles.