Namoi Cotton Cooperative Ltd., Australia's largest cotton processor, has received a much needed marketing boost from the China National Cotton Group.

The two countries had signed a 50/50 joint venture marketing deal that will allow the marketing of Namoi Cotton Cooperative Ltd. cotton crops globally from 2012 to 2017. At the same time, the agreement gives China National Cotton Group direct access to one of the world's top cotton exporting countries.

The Namoi Cotton Cooperative Ltd. and China National Cotton Group deal follows other such bilateral partnerships between the two countries for Australia's agricultural sector. In July, China's state-owned food and oil giant Cofco acquired major control of Tully Sugar Ltd.

The partnership will give Namoi Cotton Cooperative Ltd. a better footing to compete with commodity giants dominating the world cotton trade as well as deal with market volatility, analysts said.

Namoi Cotton Cooperative Ltd. is the largest cotton ginning company in Australia and enjoys 30 per cent market share. As of Monday it had ginned 1.25 million bales, up from 588,000 bales a year ago. Of these, 965,000 bales had been marketed.

Namoi Cotton Cooperative Ltd. reported on Monday a $56.7 million operating loss for the half-year ending August 31 owing to heavy losses caused by cotton futures.

The loss was in line with a shock profit downgrade announced last month which caused its shares to plummet 65 per cent.

Namoi Cotton Cooperative Ltd. has been in breach of its financial contracts since July.