VZCZCXRO2372
RR RUEHIK
DE RUEHAH #0028/01 0071010
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 071010Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4022
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 6087
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 3779
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 3638
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 4329
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1384
RHMCSUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 4263
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000028 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN 
ANKARA FOR AGRICULTURE COUNSELOR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR ETRD PGOV TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: SILENCE ON COTTON HARVEST 
RESULTS 
 
REF: 09 ASHGABAT 1426 
 
ASHGABAT 00000028  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for Public 
Internet. 
 
¶2. (U) In December 2009, Turkmenistan government media 
reported that Mary, Ahal and Balkan provinces 
fulfilled their regional cotton plans.  According to 
official press reports, the total amount of cotton, 
which was harvested by the three successful provinces, 
was 520,333 tons.  There were no reports on the 
harvest results in Lebap and Dashoguz provinces, which 
jointly were supposed to harvest 40 percent of the 
targeted amount of cotton.  The government has not 
released the final statistics for the 2009 cotton 
harvest, nor were the results of the cotton harvest 
mentioned at the end of the year Cabinet Meeting. 
 
¶3. (U) The Turkmenistan Government has not released 
the final results of the cotton harvest for any year 
since Berdimuhamedov has been president.  However, the 
Government of Turkmenistan has publicly announced 
goals for the harvest each year.  In 2009 the goal was 
1,050,000 tons of seed cotton, which, after ginning, 
would produce about 350,000 tons of cotton fiber. 
 
¶4. (SBU) To achieve the target, Turkmenistan had 
allocated 545,000 hectares of the country's arable 
land to cotton production.  This area is 100,000 
hectares less than was allocated in 2006 under former 
President Niyazov, although Niyazov's cotton 
production goal for 2006 was over two million tons. 
In 2009 the government planted less cotton in Dashoguz 
Province because the province's colder weather and 
less sun mean that it is less hospitable to cotton 
than the rest of the country.  According to a farmer 
from Dashoguz Province, the land that was formerly 
used for cotton was used for wheat and rice in 2009. 
The farmer said that they experienced less control 
from the authorities than in the previous years. 
 
¶5. (SBU) A contact at M&M, a German transportation 
company with an office in Turkmenistan, told us that 
in 2009 his company transported about 30,000-40,000 
tons of cotton fiber out of Turkmenistan, which is 
approximately the same amount as in the past few 
years.  He added that Turkmenistan usually exports 
about 150,000 tons, which would be half of its annual 
cotton fiber production. (NOTE: If Turkmenistan did 
produce 300,000 tons of cotton fiber in 2009, that 
would mean that its cotton harvest would have been 
about 900,000 tons.  END NOTE.) 
 
¶6. (SBU) COMMENT: As post reported at the beginning of 
the harvest, there were early indications that this 
year's crop would fall short of the planned amount 
(reftel).  The lack of information in government media 
about the results of the cotton harvest may indicate 
two things: either that the state of the cotton sector 
is much worse than the government is willing to admit 
or that the government purposely eased state control 
over the cotton sector to allow a gradual 
liberalization of state agriculture, which President 
Berdimuhamedov promised in March 2009.  However, the 
fact that many restrictions that retard the sector, 
including those on land ownership and choice of crop 
as well as a fixed sales price, are still in place 
raises doubt about progress towards liberalizing the 
sector.  It seems more likely that the Turkmen 
 
ASHGABAT 00000028  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
Government decided not to admit that this was another 
lackluster year for Turkmenistan's cotton harvest. 
END COMMENT. 
 
CURRAN