Syria's cotton production jumped to 1.47 million tons in 2000 from 900,000 tons in 1999, the Ath-Thawra newspaper reported last week.
Syria exports 80 percent of its cotton, the second-largest foreign exchange earner after oil, the newspaper quoted cotton industry official Farid Khouri as saying. Khouri gave no explanation for the sharp increase in production and could not be reached for comment.
He said that around 20 percent of the Syrian workforce is engaged in different cotton-related sectors, including textiles. Syria is the world's 10th-largest producer of cotton. — (AFP, Damascus)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
