China will cooperate with Azerbaijan in cotton production. A plant will be set up in Azerbaijan for production of seedless raw cotton and cotton seed, based on new technologies. Cooperation with China is of significant importance in terms of development of seed farming, cotton processing and seed cleaning in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan is keen to give new life to the cotton production industry. The country was famous for high production of cotton the last century and was a leading cotton producer in the Soviet Union. However, over the past 18 years, production dipped six fold. Areas under cotton reduced nine times. Despite the heavy demand, the decrease in interest in cotton resulted from the low profitability margins of cotton production. Azerbaijan collected 35,000 tons of cotton in 2015, which is 14.6 per cent less than in 2014. This was the lowest indicator of cotton production in Azerbaijan since 2010.

The target for 2016 is to plant cotton on 30,000 hectares of land (80 per cent more than the previous year), and to supply 70,000 tons of raw cotton. China is the largest cotton producing country in the world. Some 300 million people are involved in cotton production in the country’s 24 provinces.