Uzbekistan, the world’s number 2 cotton exporter, raised cotton-fibre output in January-March 2007 to 425,914 tonnes from 419,207 tonnes in the same period of 2006, the Uzbek State Statistic Committee said on Tuesday.

In the first quarter the Central Asian state produced 32,820 tonnes of yarn from processed cotton compared to 30,193 tonnes in January-March 2006.

Uzbekistan’s 2006 cotton fibre output fell to 1.171 million tonnes from 1.188 million tonnes a year earlier.

Earlier government expected to export 750,000-800,000 tonnes of fibre in 2006 compared to 880,000 tonnes in 2005 which made up 19 per cent of total export revenues.