At present, Xinjiang is in the cotton harvesting season, and cotton harvesters shuttle back and forth in the cotton fields, harvesting cotton in an orderly manner. These cotton will be processed into lint, cotton yarn, clothes, and even edible oil, and then sent to markets.

Photo shows harvesters harvest cotton in the cotton field. (Photo by Abudaini Mamut)

Xinjiang not only has a large area of cotton fields, but also a complete industrial chain that maximizes the value of cotton. What is the value of cotton after sowing, field management, and harvesting?

We can start with a large cotton planting county.

Bachu County, Kashi Prefecture, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, is one of the largest high-quality cotton bases in China, with a cotton planting area of 1.49 million mu (about 99,333 hectares) this year, which is 160,000 mu(about 10,667 hectares) more than last year. The cotton planted here is growing well, with an average yield of over 390 kilograms per mu, which is about 15 kilograms more than last year.

Cotton farmers are very happy because of the increase in cotton production. And the upstream links of the cotton industry chain are also eager to turn cotton into various products. During the cotton harvesting season, there are trucks loaded with seed cotton entering the ginnery. After undergoing multiple processes such as impurity removal, ginning, and packaging, these seed cotton are processed into lint. This process will produce two products, one is lint and the other is cottonseed.

Let's start with the use of lint.

The lint produced by the ginnery, will be sent to the cotton supervision warehouse after packaging and labeling with traceable quality barcodes.

Cotton trading is different from ordinary commodities. If a company wants to use cotton as material to process into other products, it must first go through trading and purchase, and then transfer the lint from the nearest cotton supervision warehouse.

Bachu County has three cotton supervision warehouses, and the largest cotton futures delivery warehouse in southern Xinjiang is also located in Bachu County. The lint used by cotton spinning enterprises also comes from here.

Taking spinning enterprises as an example. In the spinning workshop, spinning equipment processes cotton into slender cotton yarn. Some of the packaged cotton yarn will be transported to the domestic market, while another will remain in the local area as materials for weaving enterprises.

Photo shows a worker loads packed cotton yarn onto a truck.

In recent years, Bachu County has introduced a number of weaving enterprises to enrich the cotton industry chain. Cotton yarn is sent to weaving enterprises, processed into individual pieces of fabric before being sent to printing and dyeing enterprises.

Printing and dyeing is an important process, and the fabric that has been printed and dyed meets the basic requirements for making clothes. Previously, Bachu County introduced a printing and dyeing enterprise, which also make up for the shortcomings in the industrial chain.

After printing and dyeing, some of the fabrics are processed locally into clothes, socks, etc.

and sold in the market, while others are transported to the broader domestic market.

In fact, lint can also be turned into medical gauze and other items. After entering the medical supplies’ industry, lint becomes gauze after warping, weaving, bleaching, sterilization and other processes.

Photo shows a worker inspects the warping machine at a workshop of Xinjiang Huakai Medical Supplies Co., Ltd. (Photo by Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily/ Lu Fengbao)

After discussing the process of transforming cotton into clothing and medical supplies, let's talk about another important product of cotton, cottonseed.

Oil processing enterprises are very fond of cottonseed.

A large amount of cottonseed is sent to oil processing enterprises, where it undergoes production processes such as shelling, pre-pressing, leaching, and refining to produce cottonseed oil, cottonseed meal, and cottonseed hulls. These products are then used as materials in industries such as edible oil processing and animal husbandry.

At this point, the deep processing of cotton waste has not finished, and it may also be processed into phospholipids, biodiesel, fatty acids, and so on.

At the process of weaving, the cotton textile and clothing industry chain is still very long, with directions such as garment OEM, clothing brands, aviation materials, and so on.

The piles of cottonseed hulls also have important uses.

Cotton seeds, after being hulled, produce a large amount of cottonseed hulls that can reach tens of thousands of tons per year. These cottonseed hulls will be sold to market both inside and outside Xinjiang, becoming nutrients for mushroom cultivation and one of the feed sources for cattle and sheep.

As Xinjiang attracts more related enterprises to invest, the whole cotton industry chain will continue to extend, become more complete, and Xinjiang cotton will also have greater value.

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