ocr: Strengths Cotton and gas. lurkmenistan was the USSR's major supplier of cotton and supplied12% of. gas. Hard currency trading has meant that real prices are being paid for these commodities for the first time - under the USSR only 1% ofprofits returnedto lurkmenistan. ealaesses Cotton mono-culture means most foodhas to be imported. - The least industrialized ex-Soviet state: most plant dates back to the 1920s.
