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AUSTRALIA: Australia's Cotton Output may soar to 1.5 million bales

Australia's cotton output will almost triple next year as farmers expand their fields, which have received beneficial rains, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.

Production may soar to 1.5 million bales in the year ending September 2009, from 525,000 in the year ending this September, the agency's Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report posted on the USDA Web site. Harvested area will more than triple to 190,000 hectares, the report stated.

Australia's cotton production plummeted this year, the report said, citing the effects of a severe drought since 2002. This year's harvest will be a 25-year low, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics said in February. Even at 1.5 million bales, the country's cotton output will fall short of the 2.3 million bale 10-year average, the USDA report said.

Australian cotton growers haven't benefited from the 43 percent gain in U.S. cotton prices in the past year because of the country's strengthening currency, the USDA report said. The Australian dollar has gained 15 percent against the U.S. currency in the past year.

Cotton futures for July delivery fell 0.27 cent, or 0.4 percent, to 69.29 cents a pound today in New York.

Source: Agencies • News Courtesy: BharatTextile.com

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