China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the top economic planning body, said Tuesday that 1.52 million tonnes of state-reserved cotton would be sold on the domestic market to meet growing demand.

The NDRC and the Ministry of Finance made the decision on May 20, but the commission did not specify when the release of the cotton would be completed in the statement posted Tuesday on the NDRC website.

The amount of state-reserved cotton was abundant and government agencies would decide on the appropriate time to release it on to the market, said the statement.

NDRC figures show the cotton price rose by 2,000 yuan (293 U.S. dollars) a tonne in China from November last year to the end of April due to a supply shortfall.

The cotton price on the Chinese market reached 13,152 yuan a tonne on May 31, while the average monthly price stood at around 11,619 yuan last November, according to data from the website www.cncotton.com run by China National Cotton Reserve Corporation.

The commission said the reserve bidding price for state-reserved cotton was 12,600 yuan per tonne from May 31.

China is one of the world's leading cotton producers, harvesting 7.8 million tonnes last year.

A total of 2.72 million tonnes of cotton was bought by the state-controlled reserves from August last year to March this year, according to the state-owned China National Cotton Reserve Corporation.

(Xinhua News Agency June 2, 2009)