Cotton woes in Tajikistan
27/02/2009
Falling cotton prices may be good news for under-pressure garment manufacturers and consumers, but they are reported to be pushing Tajikistan's cotton industry to the verge of bankruptcy.
The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), a non-governmental organisation that aims to help develop media standards in various parts of the world, has reported that a government scheme launched last year made it easier for Tajik cotton farmers to obtain loans, but that many may now be unable to repay their debts because income from last autumn's harvest was far worse than expected.
Tajikistan's economy is heavily reliant on cotton, which over recent years has contributed around a fifth of export revenues. The US department of state has published export figures for the Asian country for the first quarter of 2008 of $470 million. Aluminium is the other big contributor to that, but cotton production provides more jobs. In fact, the IWPR article claims that nearly half the country's workforce are dependent on the cotton industry for their jobs, and that two-thirds of all farms in Tajikistan grow cotton.
Cotton was bringing Tajik farmers $1,500 a tonne in the first quarter of 2008, but by the autumn, this had fallen to just $850 a tonne.
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