Bachu County Of Xinjiang Takes The Road Of Stabilizing The Development Of The Whole Cotton Industry Chain

In late autumn, millions of acres of cotton in Bachu County, Xinjiang, enjoyed a bumper harvest. A cotton picker shuttled back and forth to pick and transport thousands of cotton.

What do these cotton blobs eventually become?

A piece of yarn, a piece of cloth, a piece of clothes, and a drop of oil?

The reporter came to Bachu County, where the largest cotton futures delivery warehouse is located in southern Xinjiang. From cotton planting to seed cotton processing, trading, storage and transportation, spinning and weaving, printing and dyeing, garment processing, and oil pressing, he explored the development path of the whole cotton industry chain to "eat dry and squeeze out" cotton and maximize profits.

　　 Double growth of area and unit yield

On October 22, in the cotton field of Talanier Village, Anakul Township, Bachu County, white cotton blossomed into an endless "sea of cotton", and the cotton picker reached out "hand" to pick cotton into the "belly".

Cotton grower Chen Jingang stood on the ground, watching bags of cotton piled up in the cotton field, laughing from ear to ear, and said: "6000 mu of cotton has been half harvested this month."

Chen Jingang is a famous local planter with many years of cotton planting experience. This year, from sowing, fertilization, irrigation to harvesting, he chose the whole process of mechanized operations, which not only improved the efficiency of operations, but also reduced human costs, and improved cotton yield and quality. "The average production capacity per mu reached 490kg, 30 kg more than last year," he said.

The nearby Doraitibag Township is also a scene of bumper harvest. Wumaierjiang Aisa, a major planter in Ayakkalakule Village in the township, has planted 1000 mu of cotton. Now it is the cotton harvest time. One machine can harvest 300 mu per day. "With a good harvest this year, I'm sure I can earn more money," he said.

Wu Zhifu, a member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Director of the Agricultural and Rural Bureau of Bachu County, introduced that the cotton planting area of the whole county increased by 160000 mu compared with that of last year, with 100% mechanization rate of cotton planting and 91% mechanization rate of harvesting. The cotton is growing well this year, just in the harvest time. It is estimated that the average cotton yield per mu will exceed 390kg, about 15kg more than last year.

　　 The Wonderful Journey of Cotton

After cotton picking, a wonderful journey of change begins.

Each ginning plant operates at a high speed and processes cotton with full power. The machines in the production workshop of Bachu County Hualian Cotton Industry Co., Ltd. roared. The seed cotton transported from all directions was processed into lint products with complete packaging and quality traceability after multiple processes such as impurity removal, ginning, packaging, etc., and then sent to the cotton supervision warehouse, where the lint was quietly waiting for buyers.

"Since the end of September, all efforts have been made to purchase seed cotton, and the processing volume has exceeded 3000 tons," said Li Zhaoyan, head of Bachu Hualian Cotton Industry Co., Ltd.

Bachu County has three cotton supervision warehouses in total, and the largest cotton futures delivery warehouse in southern Xinjiang is also in Bachu.

After spinning enterprises purchase a certain amount of lint through cotton trading, they can directly pick up goods from the local cotton supervision warehouse.

Entering the spinning workshop of Xinjiang Shibo Cotton Textile Co., Ltd., one spinning equipment operates at high speed to process white cotton into slender cotton yarn.

In the loading and unloading area, a forklift is loading the packed finished cotton yarn onto the truck. Some of these cotton yarns were sent to several weaving enterprises outside Xinjiang, and some were digested nearby and became raw materials for upstream processing enterprises.

In recent years, Bachu County has attracted a number of large textile enterprises to settle in the industrial park relying on the spinning enterprises in the upstream industrial chain, promoting the rapid development of the textile industry in the county.

The cotton yarn enters the weaving enterprise, is processed into pieces of grey cloth and then sent to the printing and dyeing enterprise. The dyed cloth has the basic conditions for making clothes. Some of these fabrics are exported, and some of them are processed into clothes and socks in Bachu for marketing.

So far, one cotton has gone through the whole industrial chain process of harvesting, ginning, spinning, weaving, printing and dyeing, and clothing in Bachu.

At present, Bachu cotton industry has a complete chain. There are 35 ginning plants, 14 spinning enterprises, 4 weaving enterprises, 1 printing and dyeing enterprise, and 5 clothing and hosiery enterprises in the county, which support the high-quality development of the local cotton industry.

　　 Cotton hulls are also good

Do you think the value of cotton is over? did not. Small cotton also "brushed" a wave of sense of existence in the oil pressing link.

After cotton is ginned, the cottonseed is stripped from the cotton. These cottonseeds are raw materials for oil processing enterprises and continue to enrich the value of cotton.

Entering Xinjiang Yingutai Oil Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yingutai Company"), a smell of oil came to my nose. Only the stacking area is full of cottonseed, which is finally sold to upstream enterprises after production processes such as hulling, pre pressing, leaching and refining.

"The annual processing capacity of the enterprise is 170000 tons, which is not the peak of processing at present. It will be busier in December and January next year." Xiao Xicheng, manager of Yingutai Company, said that the company can produce more than 20000 tons of refined oil products a year.

In the oil distribution area, a edible oil tanker stopped under the filling port and soon filled with 30 tons of refined oil, which would be transported to a edible oil processing plant in northern Xinjiang and become the raw material for such processing plants.

It is not enough to squeeze the refined oil. In the process of processing cottonseed, a large amount of cottonseed will be produced.

Is this the end of cotton surplus value? "Look at the piles of cotton hulls, which are also important products produced by the company." Xiao Xicheng said that after the shelling process of cotton seeds, a large number of cotton hulls are produced, which can reach more than 50000 tons a year. These cotton hulls will be sold to the markets inside and outside Xinjiang, and become the food for growing mushrooms, as well as one of the feedstuffs for cattle and sheep.

A small piece of cotton, turned into yarn, made into clothes, pressed into oil... is not only a vivid portrayal of the road of industrial modernization in Bachu, but also a useful exploration of the long-term mechanism for the comprehensive revitalization of Xinjiang and even China's rural areas.

(Source: Xinjiang Daily)