Cotton Economics are Tough

Cotton Economics are Tough

Lorrie Boyer
Lorrie Boyer
Reporter
The economics are tough for the US cotton industry, according to Gary Adams, National Cotton Council president,

“We have seen costs that have increased substantially over the last several years. In fact, as we look at comparing, say, this year relative to 2018 we're probably up, on average, about $200 per acre on cotton cost of production. At the same time, competition has increased where Brazil and Australia have larger crops, now.”

Adams says, therefore the NCC is working to find ways to keep us cotton farmers more competitive. How can we better incentivize demand for US cotton.

“Are there options where we can look at ways to leverage the sustainability and traceability of us cotton and hopefully add value to those brands and retailers and have them request more US cotton through their supply chain. So that's certainly one of the issues that we're looking at.”

One example, he says, is the US cotton protocol, which is a certified cotton program that producers can opt to be a part of.

“And that was in response to the messages we were hearing from the brands and retailers who were looking, you know, they more was being asked of them, so they were moving back down their supply chain to try to get more information about the way cotton is produced in the cotton they're sourcing. And then trust protocol is a great example of that, because we now can give them data on aggregate data on the metrics, environmental metrics of us cotton production, and see in that smaller environmental footprint. We can also give them some traceability information through the supply chain.”

National Cotton Council President, Gary Adams.

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