Having just experienced last year’s cotton production falling to a 40-year low, cotton production this season has increased significantly due to the impact of rainfall in March. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, this season’s cotton sales in Australia have quadrupled compared to last year, with a value of more than 1.5 billion Australian dollars.
After seven years of drought, drought conditions in many cotton-growing areas in Australia have greatly eased in the past 12 months. Adam Kay, CEO of the Cotton Association, said that after experiencing widespread rainfall, the industry expects cotton production to double again next season, striving to reach 4 million bales!
But Adam did not show enough confidence in this. Since some key planting areas missed this wave of heavy rainfall in summer, it is still very difficult to achieve this expected goal.
According to Australian media reports, Australian cotton is worth at least AU$800 million a year in the Chinese market. Since this season’s cotton cannot be sold to China, a bumper cotton harvest is expected. Great happy events are overshadowed. They had to find new sales outlets.
To this end, Australia plans to take risks and seize food from the tiger’s mouth. Adam said that China once contracted 70% of Australian cotton production, but Chinese textile mills were “warned” not to purchase Australian cotton anymore. Since next season’s cotton production is expected to double, time is tight and the task is heavy to open up new markets. “We must ensure that they have a place to go.” Adam Kay also revealed that after losing the Chinese market, Australian cotton merchants are thinking about how to Export cotton to Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, South Korea and other places, and these places are the territory of American cotton. In other words, Australia is gearing up to steal the U.S. cotton business.
It should be mentioned that China is the world’s largest cotton producer and importer. In 2020, China imported 2.15 million tons of cotton, and the United States ranked first, accounting for 45% , and in 2019, this number was only 20%, ranking third after Brazil (27%) and Australia (22%). Some voices pointed out that since the United States is unkind and grabs Australia’s cotton business first, don’t blame Australia for retaliating in kind later.
The Australian business community calls on the government to improve China-Australia relations
It is not difficult to see that cotton is difficult to sell. The deterioration of China-Australia relations has indeed had a considerable impact on Australia’s domestic situation. Recently, the Australian business community has jointly called on the government to ease China-Australia relations through negotiation and diplomatic means, which shows that Australia’s China policy is increasingly losing public support.
Australian Financial Review reporter Michael Smith pointed out in the article that Australian business leaders are frustrated with the deterioration of China-Australia relations and privately even blame Australia. Prime Minister Morrison.
The article stated that business leaders do not understand “Why would the Australian government consider tearing up the lease on Darwin Port? Why would Australian politicians discuss going to war with a country that is much more powerful than us? “
“The Australian” also issued an article stating that Australia’s largest industrial association urged its government to ease the current tense relationship between China and Australia through “negotiation, common sense and diplomacy.”
In the article, Innis Willocks, CEO of the Australian Industry Group, also believes that the Australian government should avoid using inflammatory language and that the Australian business community should strive to strengthen relations with China. contact to prevent further escalation of tensions between China and Australia.
Australia’s former foreign minister called on the government to treat China rationally
Since May, Australia has Attitudes have indeed changed. Many government officials have unanimously pointed their guns at the United States, criticizing the actions of the United States that are causing Australia to suffer unprecedented losses.
According to the Beijing Daily, Australian Federal Senator Patrick said in an interview recently that as the contradiction between China and the United States becomes more and more prominent, Australia as a participant is indeed somewhat irrational.
Former Australian Foreign Minister Evans also suddenly began to speak for China, saying that China has never wanted to “dominate the world.” He called on Australian Prime Minister Morrison to immediately stop all inappropriate actions. Behave responsibly and stop “provoking” China to avoid further exacerbating conflicts between China and Australia.
Evans believes that based on the current realistic conditions, the contradiction between China and Australia will bring irreparable losses to Australia, and things will often become worse as a result. </p
