ARGENTINA

The drought that
hit Argentina's 1996-97 cotton crop earlier this year, has
stripped the country of an
output of as much as 100,000
tonnes (t) of lint, said a leading Argentine cotton
exporter. With the harvesting about 40 per cent complete, the extent of the damage to the cotton crop this
year has been estimated. The
final lint output is likely to
total about 300,000 t,
according to Rafael Almiroty
of Almiroty Compania.

Experts say that due to
late sowing, the plants were
still very small when the
drought struck and hence
they became more vulnerable to heat stress. Almiroty
warned that more damage
could be in store for the cotton aitop in the event of an
early frost.

This disappointUg output means that Argentina
will export only about
200,000 t of cotton lint, with
the rest feeding its anaemic
textile industry. Most of the
lint has been already sold off
to Brazil in advance, said Almiroty.

Argentine farmers have
been investing heavily in
cotton farming in recent
years, and now the vast
majority of crops is harvested by machine instead of
being picked by hand.