The US may next week loosen its estimate for supplies of cotton in 2011-12, to judge by reports from foreign attaches, which indicate that an extra 1,400 bales may be available amongst significant trading players.

Turkey's imports will tumble by one-quarter an eight-year low in 2011-12, US Department of Agriculture staff in Ankara said, forecasting the harvest above the official Washington estimate, and consumption lower.

"The recent economic turmoil, high world cotton prices and a lack of orders forced some domestic mills to temporary closure or to increase the use of man-made fibres," the attaches said.

"The sudden increase in cotton prices, and then sharp decline in prices a few months later, caused some mills to get stuck with relatively high-cost raw materials at a time when export demand was falling."

At of 2.53m bales for 2011-12, the attaches' estimate for Turkey's cotton imports, the world's third-largest after those of China and Bangladesh, was 525,000 bales below the official USDA forecast.

Growth efforts

Separately, attaches in Uzbekistan, historically the third-ranked exporter after the US and India, foresaw shipments coming in a total of 550,000 bales higher than the USDA estimate over 2010-11 and 2011-12.

Recent weather had been "generally favourable", after a dearth of irrigation water earlier in the season, the attachés said, adding that setbacks to Uzbek government plans to raise domestic cotton consumption meant more would be available for export.

And in West Africa, more than 300,000 extra bales, over USDA forecasts, in exports would be available from countries including Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal, which have historically shipped some 2m bales a year, roughly the same as Brazil.

The estimate reflected largely better hopes for output from Mali, where the government settled farm co-operatives' debts, spent $22m on fertilizer subsidies and lifted by 39% the price at which it purchases the fibre from growers to encourage output.

Key report

The USDA will on October 12 reveal its next Wasde report on world crop supply and demand, detailing latest estimates for agricultural commodities including cotton.

The last report, three weeks ago, left the estimate for world exports little-changed at 25.3m bales.