Paraguay to plant 35,000 hectares cotton

The goal for this season in Paraguay is to cover around 35,000 hectares with cotton, reported business man, Hugo Florentín, who also announced that recent rains in several areas as well as predictions of good international prices revived interest in this textile sector.

However, sectors claiming the subsidy promised by the former Government, to compensate for low prices of last year, mainly stockpilers state that -without the State’s subsidy- the sector would definitely disappear. Nonetheless, Florentín stated that several ginning industries are acquiring the seeds available in the market – both traditional and transgenic.

Analyzing historical records, cotton production in Paraguay is within extinction levels, after the peak reached in 1991 with 753,000 tons. Now, if Paraguay considers the availability of seeds for planting, which should start in less than two weeks, projections can estimate a harvest of only around 35,000 tons of cotton in the next season, in the best case scenario.