Although China is the world's second-largest cotton producer, it still faces cotton shortage. The country produced 5.95 million metric tons of cotton during the 2020-2021 season, which ended in January, but the demand was about 7.8 million tons, the China Grain Reserves Group said in a statement on Wednesday night.

Xinjiang manufactured 5.2 million tons of cotton during the season, about 87 percent of the nation's total production, the group said.

To resolve the shortage, China needs to import 2 million tons of cotton from countries including Brazil and India every year, the group said.

The region is well known for its premium, long-fiber cotton, which is popular in domestic and global markets. In 2019, more than 42 percent of the region's cotton was harvested by machinery rather than hand thanks to advanced farming technology, it added.

Chinese social media users on Wednesday called for a boycott of H&M, the world's second-largest clothing retailer, after the Swedish company said it wouldn't use cotton from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

In a statement in March last year, H&M said it wouldn't work with any Xinjiang garment manufacturing factories, nor would it source products from the region because the company was concerned about reports of accusations of forced labor.

Although the statement has been on its official website for more than one year, it recently caught attention after netizens reposted it on Chinese social media sites.

By noon Thursday, H&M products were removed from all major Chinese e-commerce platforms, including Taobao and JD. Huang Xuan and Song Qian, two Chinese brand ambassadors of H&M with millions of followers on social media, have severed ties with the company, according to announcement from their representative on Wednesday.

H&M has more than 400 stores in China.

Further, the Chinese public has noticed that international companies including Nike, Adidas, Zara, Fila and Gap have issued similar statements about Xinjiang, which has triggered calls for wider boycotts of those brands.

These companies are all members of the Better Cotton Initiative, a Switzerland-based organization that decided to suspend cooperation with licensed farmers in Xinjiang during the 2020-2021 cotton season over persistent allegations of forced labor in the region, the organization said in March last year.

According to its official website, the organization has 2,100 members worldwide, of which nearly 500 are from China, including five retailers and brands and 485 suppliers and manufacturers.

About 67 percent of the cotton produced in Xinjiang is used domestically, as China is the largest cotton consumer in the world, the China Grain Reserves Group said.