Trade war with US to plant seeds of change in China’s cotton industry – one way or another
With both China and the US slapping tariffs on imported products, people operating businesses in the two nations are bracing for impact. In the first of a series of articles exploring how the trade war affects various sectors in China, The South China Morning Post looks at how those involved in textile production are caught up in a waiting game
At 4pm on a recent afternoon, Sun Yujuan, a 38-year-old farmer, was checking her cotton plants in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong, a traditional textiles production base where her family has a hectare of land.
For more than two decades, Sun has been planting cotton, the best crop for the saline soil of Shahuliu village, part of Binzhou city. With her husband living in another city as a migrant worker, Sun has been taking care of their child and the land alone for years.
Used to the hardship working in the fields, Sun did not take any break while detecting pests on her cotton plants in the sweltering summer heat.
She took a picture of one pest and uploaded it to a mobile phone app. “I’m sending to cotton experts. They usually get back quickly on what the pest is and how I should treat it,” she said.
In about two months, her cotton will be picked and transported to market – where dynamics have been changed by the trade war initiated by US President Donald Trump.
“If the cotton price is good, I’ll be happy to plant more cotton and less corn next year,” Sun said. “Will the cotton price really go up?”