More than half of China's cotton consumption will be imported by 2010 as domestic demand outstrips production, an industrial expert predicted here on Wednesday.

The country's dependence on imported cotton, or the proportion of net imports to consumption, stood at 45 percent, Zhou Shengtao, president of the China Cotton Association, told the 2006 Summit Forum for China's Cotton Industry Development at Tianjin.

The shortage could worsen as the possibility of a rapid growth in output was constrained by the country's limited land and water resources.

Cotton consumption grew 15.1 percent annually from 2000 to 2005, much faster than the 5.3 percent yearly growth rate for output.

The China Textile Industrial Association had projected an annual growth rate of 7.5 percent for yarn output, which would mean a record high annual cotton consumption of 14 million tons in 2010, an increase of 4.3 million tons from 2005.

Zhou said a production area of 85 million mu with a per mu output of 80 kilograms over the next five years would produce an annual cotton output of 6.8 million tons by 2010 at best. "Still there is a shortfall of seven million tons," he said.

Growers, dealers and textile manufacturers must establish a stable collaboration mechanism.

He also urged government departments and industry heads to regulate the market in a scientific, effective and reliable way to protect the interests of cotton growers who were the victims of past price wars.