Uzbekistan cotton shortfall

The Uzbekistan agriculture ministry has announced that this year's cotton harvest, the main source of foreign earnings, is about a quarter lower than predicted.

The shortfall was caused by heavy unseasonal rains in the autumn which followed a summer of blistering heat and the worst drought in a century.

Some 30,000 hectares of cotton perished through lack of water.

Last year cotton produced 27% of Uzbekistan's total export earnings.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service