DUSHANBE, January 27, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT) has offered to raise export tax on raw cotton in order to boos domestic supply, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Saidrahmon Nazriyev, told a news conference in Dushanbe on January 26.

“We must provide our domestic producers with raw cotton.  The number of new textile factories in the country is growing from to year,” said Nazriyev, “Domestic producers are currently able to process 64,000 tons of cotton into manufactured goods.  Tajik cotton producing farms, however, have sold only 10.4 percent (little more than 30,000 tons) of cotton in the domestic market, while more than 300,000 tons of cotton were yielded in the country last year.”

According to him, cotton farmers prefer to export cotton due to rise in the international cotton prices.  “Compared to 2009 the international cotton prices rose 78 percent last year.  As of December 31, 2010, the price of one ton of cotton was more than US$4,000,” said the deputy minister.  “Therefore, Tajik cotton farmers prefer foreign traders to domestic producers.  Since, we cannot make cotton farmers provide domestic enterprises with raw cotton, we are forced to use other mechanisms to boost domestic supply.”