Create new advantages in the cotton industry The resilience of the industrial chain and supply chain has been further improved

Create new advantages in the cotton industry

Bulk agricultural products cotton plays an important role in the development of the national economy. At the 2023 'CNCE Cotton Industry Development Annual Conference, hosted by the National Cotton Exchange Market, a subsidiary of China Supply and Marketing Group, Hou Shunli, member of the party group and deputy director of the Council of the All-China Supply and Marketing Cooperative, said that in the face of complex and severe internal and external situations and increased uncertainties, China's cotton industry has faced difficulties and carried forward with heavy burdens, and the resilience of the industrial chain and supply chain has been further improved.

Digitalization is having positive results

2022 is an extraordinary year for the cotton industry. This year, affected by the superposition of multiple factors such as Western sanctions and suppression of Xinjiang cotton, the epidemic and other factors, the domestic cotton market fluctuated sharply, and for the first time in nearly a decade, there was a "triple inversion" of purchase and sales prices, futures prices and domestic and foreign cotton prices, cotton demand decreased, prices fell sharply, business uncertainty increased, and risks increased.

As an important sector enterprise of China Supply and Marketing Group, the national cotton trading market has been focusing on serving the cotton industry for many years. Ding Haowu, chairman of the National Cotton Trading Market, said that in the past year, the state actively responded, dynamically adjusted and optimized epidemic prevention and control policies according to the situation, and timely introduced preferential policies such as taxation and financing for the cotton textile industry to help the industry overcome the impact of various unexpected factors, and China's total textile and apparel exports in 2022 increased by 2.5% year-on-year, promoting China's cotton and textile and garment industry to achieve steady progress.

According to the national cotton production data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the national cotton output in 2022 will be 597.7 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 4.3%.

The smooth operation of the cotton industry is inseparable from the empowerment of digital technology. At present, the digital economy has become a new driving force to promote the quality, efficiency and power of China's economic development. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China stressed the need to "accelerate the development of the digital economy, promote the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy, and create internationally competitive digital industrial clusters".

The emergence and wide application of new digital technologies have brought earth-shaking changes to the development of the cotton industry. A group of cotton-related enterprises represented by the national cotton trading market have achieved positive results in digital development, from cotton farmers to ginners, warehouses to textile mills, every cotton farmer and every bale of cotton has data records, which has strongly promoted the transformation of the business model of the cotton industry.

"Since 2004, all links of Chinese cotton, especially Xinjiang cotton, have been digitized from planting to trading, and a big data center for the whole industry chain of China cotton has been built, making cotton the only agricultural product that has realized the digitalization of the entire industrial chain." Shen Jieqiang, deputy general manager of the national cotton trading market, introduced that while actively promoting the digitalization level of China's cotton industry, the national cotton trading market continues to explore the application of big data in the cotton industry and promote the digital transformation of the industry. With the continuous maturity of digital cotton and the rapid development of smart cotton industry, the development of China's cotton industry will form a good digital ecosystem.

For the future digital direction of the cotton industry, Hou Shunli pointed out that it is necessary to accelerate the optimization and innovation of business models, stimulate the innovation vitality and creative potential of the whole industry with digitalization, realize the reengineering of the industrial chain and the upgrading of the value chain, and drive China's cotton industry to open up a broader development space at a new height. At the same time, it is necessary to accelerate the promotion of digital closed-loop management of the whole process, apply digitalization to all links of the industrial chain such as planting, processing, inspection, warehousing, logistics, and consumption, and empower the high-quality development of the cotton industry.

Maintain supply chain security and stability

On March 3, the China Cotton Association released a survey report on cotton textile enterprises, showing that in February, China's textile enterprises used Xinjiang cotton accounted for 17.2% of the total cotton used, an increase of 86.78 percentage points over the previous month.

The natural geographical conditions in Xinjiang are very suitable for the cultivation and growth of cotton. In recent years, due to the adjustment of planting structure and other factors, the cotton planting area in some places has declined; At the same time, the state has implemented the cotton target price subsidy policy in Xinjiang, which has mobilized the production enthusiasm of cotton farmers, so that the national cotton planting continues to concentrate in advantageous production areas, and the cotton planting area in Xinjiang is currently in the absolute leading position in China.

The world's cotton looks at China, and China's cotton looks at Xinjiang. Liang Yong, deputy secretary-general of the People's Government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and deputy director of the Office of the Cotton Industry Development Leading Group of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, said that the cotton industry is a pillar industry of Xinjiang's economic development, with outstanding resource advantages, and there are also some problems in development. In the future, we will focus on building a national high-quality cotton base, improving cotton quality and extending the cotton industry chain, accelerate the construction of cotton and textile and garment industry clusters, the construction of cotton production, supply, storage and marketing systems, and promote the innovation and development of national cotton cotton yarn trading centers, realize the linkage of futures and cash and other public service systems, and continuously improve the resilience and safety level of the cotton industry chain and supply chain in the autonomous region.

The safety and stability of the industrial chain and supply chain is the foundation and support for ensuring economic stability and supply and demand balance. Hou Shunli pointed out that it is necessary to adhere to the bottom-line thinking, continuously optimize the layout of cotton production, ensure the supply of textile raw materials through multiple channels, and continue to improve the resilience and safety level of the cotton industry chain supply chain.

Hou Shunli said that in terms of industrial layout, on the basis of stabilizing Xinjiang, China's largest high-quality commercial cotton production base, cotton planting in relevant production areas should be moderately restored; In terms of textile consumption, encourage textile enterprises mainly for domestic sales to increase the proportion of cotton used in Xinjiang, continue to promote the sustainable development of Chinese cotton, accelerate the establishment of Xinjiang cotton certification and evaluation system, and promote Xinjiang cotton sales; In terms of risk prevention and control, we should base ourselves on the attributes of cotton commodities and put the prevention and resolution of risk challenges in a more prominent position; In terms of industrial system, it is necessary to adhere to integrated development, form a win-win situation in which cotton farmers increase income, cotton industry increases efficiency, cotton area prosperous, and textile benefits, and create a modern industrial system with shared benefits.

Promote the high-quality development of the industry

Recently, the survey of key designated textile enterprises in the country by China's cotton early warning system showed that due to weak international demand and abundant supply, textile output increased slightly in February, and inventories of finished products and raw materials increased. However, despite the complex internal and external situation, China's cotton industry is still considered to have the ability and conditions to cope with changes and challenges.

A series of support policies such as Xinjiang's cotton target price policy have ensured the sustainable and healthy development of the entire industrial chain of cotton production, processing, circulation and textiles. Document No. 2023 of the Central Committee in <> clearly proposed to "improve the cotton target price policy" to provide sustained and stable support for the development of China's cotton industry.

At the same time, a resilient economy and a domestic market with huge potential will provide the strongest support for the development of the cotton industry. China has the world's most complete industrial chain supply chain, with a large number of industrial clusters with a large scale and meticulous division of labor, and the export volume of textiles and garments accounts for more than 2022% of the total international trade in similar commodities, and exports will reach a new high in <> under a difficult situation.

"With the recovery of the downstream apparel and textile industry, cotton demand is still expected to be strong." Chen Yan, a senior analyst at Tianyancha Data Research Institute, introduced that there are more than 32,1 cotton industry-related enterprises in China, and the number of enterprise registrations has shown an overall upward trend in the three years from 2020 to 2022, with an average annual growth rate of 3.37% for newly registered enterprises, especially the number of newly registered enterprises in 8 reached more than 2022,8, the highest in nearly a decade, showing the market's confidence in the cotton industry.

In Ding Haowu's view, China has abundant cotton resources, advanced textile technology and a complete industrial chain, as long as it closely focuses on the primary task of high-quality development, further accelerates the pace of innovation, continuously promotes technological innovation, service innovation, format innovation and business model innovation, breaks through the development bottleneck of key links in the upstream and downstream of the industry, makes good use of China's ultra-large-scale market advantages, and fully releases consumption potential, it will certainly be able to shape new advantages in the development of China's cotton industry.

According to reports, in 2023, the national cotton trading market will continue to adhere to the system concept, highlight the problem-oriented and goal-oriented, strive to build a first-class cotton supply chain comprehensive service platform, and make new and greater contributions to the high-quality development of the cotton and cotton textile industry.

"The high-quality development of China's cotton industry needs to adapt to the situation and open a new situation, continuously enhance industrial competitiveness, lead and create new demand with high-quality supply, and promote China's transformation from a cotton industry country to a cotton industry power." Hou Shunli emphasized.

(Economic Daily, Liu Jin)