Australia cotton crop heavily damaged by weather

Feb 8 (Reuters) - Around seven percent of Australia's 2010/11 cotton plantings were destroyed by heavy rains and floods and between 15 and 20 percent of the plantings were damaged by the weather, ABARES, the government's commodities forecaster, said on Tuesday.

The value of the destroyed plantings was around A$150 million and there was further risk to the crop as flood peaks move downstream to northern New South Wales state, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) said.

(Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/08/australia-cotton-idUSSDY8DE7CR20110208)