China exported 47.4 billion U.S. dollars of cotton products in the first eight months in 2007, up 32.29 percent over the corresponding period last year, said the industry association here Thursday.

Of the total, cotton textile export reached 11.8 billion dollars, up 10.76 percent while cotton apparel export reached 35.6billion dollars, an increase of 41.38 percent, said the China National Textile and Apparel Council.

Hong Kong, Japan, the United States, Russia and Canada ranked the top five importers and purchased 6.96 billion dollars, 5.74 billion dollars, 5.72 billion dollars, 2.98 billion dollars and 1.65 billion dollars of the China's cotton products respectively.

China's cotton product export to the U.S., Russia and Canada rose by 65.06 percent, 173.36 percent and 101.49 percent respectively year-on-year in this period.

China imported 4.07 billion dollars of cotton products in the first eight months, up 3.97 percent year-on-year.