At the end of April and beginning of May 2022, cotton sowing in Jiuquan City, Gansu Province has come to an end. As of the end of April, sowing of hand-picked cotton has basically ended, some hand-picked cotton has emerged, and machine-picked cotton has also gradually ended around May Day. This year, Jiuquan City, Gansu Province predicts that the city’s cotton sown area will be about 240,000 acres, which is lower than the expected 250,000 acres. Among them, hand-picked cotton will be about 200,000 acres, and machine-picked cotton will be about 40,000 acres. Among them, Guazhou County, the largest cotton planting area in Jiuquan City, is expected to have a planting area of about 170,000 acres, basically the same as last year, and Dunhuang City is expected to have a planting area of about 30,000 to 40,000 acres.
The cotton planting area in Guazhou County, Jiuquan City this year was originally planned to be higher than the same period last year. However, so far after planting, the cotton area is basically the same as last year, and hand-picked cotton continues to be the main one. Due to the high cost of hand picking cotton, it is also difficult to find workers due to the epidemic. In addition, other crops have also achieved good returns in the past three years, such as locally grown fruits, wolfberries, wheat, fennel, cumin, sunflower, etc. Although the local government has increased its efforts in land consolidation and actively guided cotton farmers to change their traditional concept of hand-picked cotton cultivation, it is difficult for many local cotton farmers to change their cultivation concepts. Mainly because some farmers have planting sentiments and believe that they have nothing to do if they transfer the land.
Secondly, as the purchase price of cotton planting was higher last year, the land rent for machine-picked cotton increased from 400 yuan/mu last year to 700 yuan/mu this year. According to a rough estimate of the land rental cost this year, the land rent for machine-picked cotton increased The planting cost is 1,800 yuan/mu + 700 yuan/mu rent. The cost needs to be 2,500 yuan/mu. The yield per mu is about 350 kilograms. The price of seed cotton must be more than 7 yuan/kg to barely breakeven. Higher planting costs and rents also hinder the large-scale advancement of machine-picked cotton land consolidation.
In addition, so far, the sales progress of lint cotton by local cotton companies is still relatively slow. In the early stage, the sales price of some cotton companies was 23,500 yuan/ton (gross weight) and they barely managed to breakeven and sold a small amount. As textile companies became more enthusiastic in purchasing, Poor, cotton companies continue to sell at no loss, so the sales progress is slow. Because the quality and quality of local cotton are better, some cotton can be moved to warehouses as futures warehouse receipts. In addition, since the price of cottonseed has increased from the initial 3,200 yuan/ton to 3,880 yuan/ton this year, and the average selling price is 3,500 yuan/ton, cottonseed sales revenue is relatively good.
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