# Mediterranean Report: Greek Cotton

Author: Jim.Robinson
Published: 2012-01-05
Canonical URL: https://www.cottongrower.com/cotton-news/mediterranean-report-greek-cotton/

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**By Yiannis Papadogiannis**
 *Managing Director, HECOT SA*

At press time, the cotton crop in Greece is developing under favorable weather conditions. During planting period, some delays were reported at several growing areas due to rainfall and low temperatures that forced growers to replant some fields.

However, these delays have been offset to a great extent due to the warm and sunny days of August and September (so far). Therefore, in many areas, fields are not far behind – which means that growers will start entering their fields in the beginning of October.

There were some cases of green worm infestation in the Thessaly area in central Greece, but it is nothing compared with the previous season’s disaster. Farmers were prepared and took all the necessary precautions needed to fight the worm with the least damage.

There are few fields that were hurt to a large extent, and that damage occurred because growers didn’t fight the worm fast enough or with the right methods. Farmers this season are aware of the high cotton prices and have targeted high yields, which is why the production cost is higher than average. There is already a huge debate on seed cotton prices of the new season.

The unofficial acreage for this season is 280,000 hectares, which under normal yields would result in about 300,000 tons of lint. Last season, according to the Greek Ministry of Agriculture, cotton acreage was 230,000 hectares. The realistic number is a bit lower – about 210,000 to 220,000 hectares – as many growers took the subsidy rather than harvest, while others couldn’t harvest due to awful weather conditions and the green worm problem. Therefore, the increase in acreage is about 25%, while the final increase in lint production will be even higher (probably 50%), provided we don’t face serious weather problems during harvesting.

There are some experts who estimate higher production, perhaps as high as 330,000 tons, but I prefer to be more conservative.

As far as quality, all characteristics will be on the high side this season (staple length 1 1/8, strength higher than 28 gpt, mic average 4.2 ncl), as many growers have used very expensive seeds and have fertilized and irrigated efficiently. The color factor is always a question mark and will depend on September’s rainfall.

In the meantime, the well-known Greek economic crisis is bringing several changes to our sector. Banks have become tougher with credit lines and there is a lot of debate on the survival of cooperatives who used to be supported by those financial institutions.

Also, several private ginning firms will not get the credits they used to get in the past; therefore it is more than likely that they will start selling their cotton slowly at the beginning of the ginning season.

Generally speaking, there is the belief that this season, ginners will be separated into two categories:

- those who will just gin the cotton, and
- the ones who will act as ginners/exporters.

International merchants, in light of last season’s defaults and delivery problems, have decided to narrow their focus and buy only from the top ginners/exporters as a reward for last season’s good and professional performance. These ginners hope to grow their operations a bit more, either by controlling more ginning units or simply increasing their trading volumes with small ginning firms.