Even as many of the world’s cotton buyers have recoiled from record-high prices, a major source of demand has entered the market: China’s national cotton reserve.
While India’s export ban grabbed the headlines on Monday, China has been the more important story for cotton in the past 12 months. Its government-run stockpile has been steadily accumulating millions of tonnes of the fibre, or 15 per cent of this year’s estimated global demand.
That big buying programme has caused problems for India, the world’s number two exporter, whose factories are having to pay ever higher prices to compete for supplies. Pressed by a domestic textile industry, New Delhi on Monday banned all cotton exports for the second time since 2010.
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