United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) announces Greece Cotton & Products Annual 2006:
USDA on Production, made point on the final cotton output (seed cotton basis) for 2005 in Greece is reported at 1,200,000 MT. The product was of very good quality, due to the favorable dry weather conditions that prevailed during harvest. In spring 2006, cotton planting reached 370,000 Hectares.
Due to a prolonged wet period and flooding in Central Greece (Thessaly Plains), cotton farmers had to replant their fields. Similar problems were reported for areas in Central and East Macedonia, but to a much lesser extent.
This resulted in an increase in demand for planting seeds in April and the beginning of May. The national weighted-average yields for cotton in 2005 was in the neighborhood of 3,352 kg/Ha (seed cotton basis).
Yields varied from region to region according to weather, soil conditions, seed variety used and irrigation capacity, but the average was between 3,000 Kg/Ha to 4,100 Kg/Ha. U.S. cottonseed for planting provides higher yields to Greek farmers, generally around 4,000 Kg/Ha, with high quality product. Weather permitting, the 2006 Greek cotton harvest could reach 1,240,000 MT (cottonseed basis) or 445,000 MT (lint basis).
Trade Greek exports of cotton lint in CY 2005, were over 300,000 MT, valued at almost U.S. $350 million, compared with U.S. $359.0 million in CY 2004. Of the CY 2005 cotton lint sales, more than 61,000 MT were sold to EU-25 (valued at just over U.S. $55.6 million), while Turkey absorbed 44 percent of 2005 Greek exports.
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