Pages

Pages

In Box...

Cotton Exports Policy In India And The United States

By Janelle Burnett


Cotton has been used as fabric for centuries with evidence showing fragments as early as 5000 BC in Mexico and Pakistan (former Indus Valley. Cotton is the most preferred natural fiber in the clothing industry hence demands for it has been soaring. Cotton exports in global markets have also been on a sharp rise in the ever-increasing demand occasioned by the rapid increase of population. This demand has led to an annual production of 25 million tones of the commodity in the world markets.

China and India are the highest producers with a combined annual 60 million bales. A greater percentage of these, nearly 60% are used domestically in their respective textile industries. The U. S is the highest exporter with an annual turnover of 12 million bales. It has excelled in this field and has amassed a lot of wealth in this business. This industry earns a lot of foreign exchange to the country.

Countries involved in this commercialism of the above named crop use several methods of transporting it from one country to another. Research done in the recent years shows that Brazil is the leading producer and majority uses airplanes and ships in this transportation. It is evident that the crop is not of these perishable types that require extra care during transportation. Thus, the gin got from farms can take as long as several months or years before getting perished.

The production in America is greatly mechanized and farming is mostly in large scale. This has given an advantage in exports due to the high volumes of production. Although every process of production is mechanized, the overseas trade in cotton has created jobs especially in textile industries located in The U. S that export finished textile items. This market of finished textile products accounts for 3.5 million annually in overseas trade with a total annual revenue of $ 3 billion dollar.

Africa is also a giant when it comes to this kind of export. Africa has an overseas trade in cotton valued at $ billion.Mali, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Benin and Sudan are some of the largest contributors in the African trade. Africa exports most of which it produces. This is mainly due to lack of textile industries to process the raw material. Most of these textile industries are located in the developed nations and the emerging Asian markets where production is significantly high due to technology and the availability of cheap labor.

Majority of Africa production is done through subsidiary farming in small holdings. Furthermore human labor instead of machines is greatly employed. This limits the volume of production thereby having a negative impact on the overall exports. Lack of advanced technology and poor farming methods have significantly hindered their production levels.

Trade in this product is also affected by government policies and global trends. For instance The U. S government greatly subsidizes American farmers. The annual rate of these subsidies is $ 2 billion per year.

It has created an undue advantage over their African counterparts in terms of this trade. African governments are yet to establish such subsidies or incentives to their farmers thereby leaving them at the mercy of international market trends.This industry has proved a vital sector in the global economies and to increase in population, income and spending capacity, cotton exports are only expected to rise to new levels.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment