Record cotton subsidies in 11 countries

The package of subsidies to the cotton industry in 11 cotton producing countries has reached in the season 2011-12 the astronomic sum of USD 4.8 billion

The subsidies of the USA entail direct support to the cotton industry, including direct support to production, border protection, crop insurance subsidies and minimum support price mechanisms. In the season 2010-11 the sum of support was only USD 1.4 billion in the 11 countries under supervision.

The income and price support programmes are impressive and can be had from the following table

Governmental Direct Assisstance to the cotton Sector 2011-12
Country /Season		2010-2011			2011-2012
	Cotton Production in  t	Average Assistance per Pound produced / US Cents	Assistance to production in million USD	Cotton Production in  t	Average Assistance per Pound produced / US Cents	Assistance to production in million USD
Burkina Faso	646	0	6	694	1	10
China	6400	2	330	7400	19	3076
Colombia	35	11	9	40	28	26
Côte d’Ivoire	59	15	20	59	11	14
Greece	180	70	276	280	43	266
Mali	103	9	20	187	9	38
Senegal	46	3	4	50	3	4
Spain	43	98	93	60	67	89
Turkey	450	30	302	750	26	428
USA	3942	4	320	3391	11	819
All Countries	11904	5	1380	12911	17	4770
Source: ICAC / Baumwollbörse Oct. 2012

Obviously China is at the forefront of support of the cotton sector, followed by the USA, Turkey and Greece.

Those ever increasing subsidies will certainly be tested by some poorer cotton producing nations and maybe we see another complaint at the arbitrary department of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).