Cotton Harvest Season Underway

A total of 120,000 tons of cotton bolls have been harvested from around 97,500 hectares of plantations across the country so far this year, some 100,000 tons of which have already made it to cotton refinery factories, an Agriculture Ministry official said. 
Ebrahim Hezarjaribi added that cotton harvest is continuing.
The cotton cultivation season began in late April and, at that time, officials estimated up to 115,000 hectares of land will go under cultivation, but given the unexpected bad weather conditions, according to the official, only around 85% of this goal materialized.
“At present, we have cotton plantations in 20 provinces across the country with Khorasan Razavi, North Khorasan, South Khorasan, Golestan, Fars and Ardabil as the main hubs. To meet the growing demand, we plan to expand land under cultivation. As of this summer, Sistan-Baluchestan, and warmer areas in Ilam, Lorestan and Kermanshah have also joined the cotton production provinces,” he was quoted as saying by ILNA.
“Harvest began in Golestan and Ardabil in September and all cotton cultivating provinces are currently gathering their yields,” he said.    
“This year, we managed to add four cotton combine harvesters to our fleet to help reduce costs and lower waste. At present, we have six of these combines in the country, but by the time we reach the goal of expanding cotton plantations to 150,000 hectares, we will need 50 for the harvesting to be more efficient.”
According to the official, last year’s domestic demand for cotton bolls stood close to 360,000 tons and this year’s figure is estimated to increase to at least 450,000 tons.