Wednesday, March 19, 2008

commertial plant

On international agricultural market, trading distribution of plant is not being spread evenly. A plant should be commercial in one country but no to other countries. It is because of some factors. To explain these factors, we take an example, cotton and coffee.
1. One of factors is the quality of its varieties.
In determining the value of cotton, workers class samples from each bale according to staple, grade, and character. Staple refers to fiber length. Short staple accounts for about 25 percent of the domestic crop and is used in many coarser textiles. Medium staple accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. cotton, and long staple and extra-long staple for about 5 percent.
Grade refers to color, brightness, and amount of foreign matter. Standards for grading U.S. cotton are established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and revised
The major types of commercial coffee are the arabicas and the robustas. In the western hemisphere the arabicas are subdivided into Brazils and milds. Robustas are produced in the eastern hemisphere exclusively, together with substantial quantities of arabicas. The Brazils consist principally of Santos, Paraná, and Rio, named for the ports from which they are shipped. Milds are identified by the names of countries or districts in which they are grown, such as Medellín, Armenia, and Manizales coffees from Colombia. Robustas and other arabicas are similarly identified. Green coffee is a major import of the United States; about two-thirds of the 1.2 million metric tons comes from Central and South America, with Brazil and Colombia the two largest suppliers.
2. Economics condition
Surplus stocks of cotton on hand in the United States fluctuated widely during the 1970s. The world economic recession of 1973-74 ushered in a period during which both production and consumption of cotton dropped. Production, however, fell faster than consumption, and by the mid-1970s the U.S. surplus had been reduced to the lowest level in 50 years in order to compensate. Toward the end of the decade, rising prices caused by the shortages had stimulated increased production, but at the same time these higher prices made domestic cotton more vulnerable to competition from artificial fibers and imported cotton goods. World demand for cotton continued to be erratic, and some groups lobbied for increased price-supports, but an upward trend began in the 1980s.
3. Its position on world’s demand industry
Cotton is still a principal raw material for the world's textile industry, but its dominant position has been seriously eroded by synthetic fibers. In the United States, cotton accounts today for about 35 percent of the materials processed in textile mills, as against 80 percent before World War II. Net per capita consumption of cotton fibers in the United States, after declining by more than one-third between 1950 and 1970, increased during the 1980s and by the early 1990s was about 12 kg (about 27 lb) per year.
World production of cotton in the early 1990s stood at 18.9 million metric tons annually. In the 1930s, the United States produced more than half the world's cotton; by the early 1990s it was turning out about a sixth. The other leading producers included China, India, Pakistan, Brazil, and Turkey.

No comments: