SEPT. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan has tripled cotton fibre exports to China to 300,000 tonnes, about half its total production, media reported.

The move is a snub to European and US buyers which have been lobbying to force Uzbekistan to drop its use of children to pick the cotton. It’s also another indicator of the deepening reach of China in Central Asia.

Cotton is important to Uzbekistan. It harvests around 3.3m tonnes of raw cotton a year and is the world’s second largest exporter.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s tour of Central Asia last month had focused on energy supplies and security issues. This deal, though, was apparently secured when he was in Tashkent.

After China, Bangladesh and South Korea are the biggest buyers, underlining how little leverage the West has with Uzbekistan over its cotton harvest.

The West’s push to stop Uzbekistan using children to pick cotton does, though, appear to have had some impact. Reports from Uzbekistan at the start of the cotton picking season said that the state-run plantations had now stopped employing school children to pick the cotton.

In September Uzbek authorities also allowed a team of monitors from the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) in the country to observe the cotton harvest, although human rights groups said they were still worried that the observers would only be allowed a blinkered view.

Their official report is widely anticipated.

ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)