Greece cotton yields drop by 30-40% compared to 2005
11 Nov '06
3 min read
Greek area planted with cotton in 2006 is currently reported at 382,500 Hectares, which is an increase from that reported in GR 6008, July 2006. National yields are dropping this year by 30 – 40 percent when compared to those reported in 2005.
The decline in yields is due to adverse conditions prevailing this year – primarily disease during maturation and storms and flooding during harvest.
Output per hectare will be in the neighborhood of 1,030 Kg/Ha on a cotton lint basis. In some traditional cotton growing prefectures, such as the western Thessaly Plain and the prefecture of Magnisia, a drop in yields could be over 40 percent on a cotton-seed basis.
On a positive note, weather between October 18th and October 30th was dryer, which allowed farmers to proceed with harvest.
Cotton millers, desperate for raw material, grasped the opportunity provided by the recent good weather and offered better prices to farmers, reportedly up to 0.33 Euros/Kg for deliveries at the plant and 0.2905 Euros/Kg for cotton delivered at the farm gate. This provided a key incentive to intensify harvesting.
However, forecasts again predict more rainy days that may last until mid-November. This adverse weather results in fields that are too wet to properly harvest.
The cotton remaining in the field is dramatically deteriorating and many farmers are not willing to harvest some of their land.
The area left unharvested, due to adverse weather, is estimated at 30 percent of the spring 2006 planting. This, along with the reduced yields reported in the field, mean that the total Greek output in 2006 will be between 850,000 - 900,000 MT for seed cotton harvest, or 300,000 - 315,000 MT for lint.
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