On July 1st, the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) disclosed in its monthly announcement that from August 2019 to April 2020, the export volume of cotton fibers from West African countries to China was only 53,000 tons, a significant decrease of 48% compared with 101,000 tons in the same period of last year.

The committee stated that China is the world’s largest cotton consumer, and the slowdown in China’s textile industry demand during the COVID-19 pandemic is the main reason for the sharp decline in exports of West African products to China. In addition, in January of this year, China and the United States reached the first phase of trade agreement, and the pace of U.S. product exports to China accelerated from March to April, which also caused some problems for African exporters.

 

According to ICAC’s earlier forecast, West Africa’s cotton fiber production in 2019 - 2020 will be about 1.3 million tons, of which 1.1 million tons will be exported to China. ICAC pointed out that since 2018, the cotton industry has been under the dual pressure of long-term consumption decline and price decline, and the COVID-19 pandemic has added new challenges to the industry.

 

It is estimated that the total global cotton production in 2019 - 2020 is 26.1 million tons, and the total consumption during the same period is 22.5 million tons.