China’s Cotton Market as a Strategic Action Field

In recent years China has become not only one of the major cotton producers, but also the largest importer and consumer of lint cotton worldwide as well as one of the largest exporters of cotton textiles and clothing. With an estimated 100 million farmers engaged in cotton production and many more millions working in textile and clothing companies, the cotton-related industries also constitute a significant part of China’s economy. Moreover, China’s cotton industry provides a fascinating lens through which to study the country’s economic transition and its evolving political economy. Up until 2001, right before China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), cotton was one of the last agricultural products to remain under a nominal procurement monopoly by state-controlled Supply and Marketing Cooperatives (SMCs, gongxiao hezuoshe Since then, however, cotton procurement and processing — hereafter collectively referred to as the cotton industry — underwent several rounds of far-reaching reforms that profoundly altered the setup of this sector. Understanding these transformations is a worthwhile goal in itself and bears considerable import on making sense of China’s agro-food markets overall.