Turkmenistan has met its goals for the current year’s raw cotton harvest, reaping1.05mn tonnes of raw cotton, news website Trend.az has reported, citing the country’s Ministry of Agriculture. That figure is below 1.5mn tonnes of raw cotton harvested in 2014, as reported by the news website Turkmeninform.com last year.

In the country’s total share of exports, raw cotton stood as the third most important export item in 2013, amounting to $298mn, behind refined petroleum ($1.08bn) and gas ($8.07bn), according to data visualisation website for international trade data Observatory of Economic Complexity. At the same time, cotton production is the foundation for the country’s textile industry, which the country’s authorities are aiming to develop as part of a larger government programme for socioeconomic development of the country for 2012-2016. 

The country’s cotton harvest came from 545,000 hectares of land, according to the report by Trend.az. The share of long staple cotton accounted for 5% of the lands allocated for cotton farming, while the rest of the lands were taken by 12 varieties of medium staple cotton, the report said.

In the period encompassing the second half of 2014 and the first half of 2015, the country’s cotton exports stood at 300,000 tonnes, down by 25% y/y, according to latest statistics by the US cotton growers funded research and marketing company Cotton Incorporated.