Читать книгу Oil and Oilseed Processing - Ingrid Aguilo-Aguayo - Страница 16

Cotton, which is obtained from the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the family Malvaceae, is a profit crop for over 20 M farmers in developing countries, mainly cultivated to meet the basic requirements for cotton fabrics (Saxena et al. 2011). Cottonseed is a valuable by‐product of the cotton plant: for every 1 kg of cotton fiber, 1.65 kg of cottonseeds are produced (Saxena et al. 2011). The cottonseed is used to produce oil, mainly for human consumption, and oilseed cake for animal feed. Cottonseed oil fits within the previously mentioned group of plants that are not grown for oil production, and where oil can be considered as a by‐product. However, besides being a “by‐product,” cottonseed oil dominated the US vegetable oil market for almost 100 years (O'Brien et al. 2005). Table 1.1 lists some products containing cottonseed oil that were recently launched into the market.

Cottonseeds were the fifth most produced commodity within the “processed crops” classification of FAOSTAT, surpassed only by barley, sugar, molasses, and palm oil. World production of cottonseeds was measured as 46.98 Mt in 2014 (UN 2019). Although cottonseed production decreased significantly during the period 2015/2016 to 37.76 Mt, it is now slowly recovering and reached 43.39 Mt produced during the period 2018/2019 (USDA 2019a). Major cottonseed producers were China, India, and the US with a production of 12.32, 12.30, and 4.64 Mt. Cottonseed oil production is largely concentrated in India, the US, Pakistan, and China (FAO 2018). In the EU, cotton is produced only in three Member States on around 300 000 ha, mainly in Greece (approximately 80% of European production), Spain (20%, mainly grown in the region of Andalucía), and Bulgaria that produces cotton on less than 1 ha. Globally, major cottonseed exporters are the US, Greece, Australia, and Brazil with average exports of 182.12, 176.42, 166.96, and 95.45 kt/year. Despite being one of the most produced oilseeds, cottonseed oil production during the period 2018/2019 was reported to be 5.17 Mt, significantly lower than the amount of soybean, rapeseed, palm, or sunflower seed oil, which were 57.07, 27.78, 73.49, and 19.49 Mt during the same period (USDA 2019a).