World cotton supply to meet the demand

On August 11th, Mr. Steve Verett, Executive Vice President of Lubbock-USA based Plains Cotton Growers Inc briefed the Agricultural Committee of the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce on the impact of drought on cotton production. While he said, he is a person who sees a glass to be half-full, the dire drought situation in Texas forced him to paint a bleak albeit realistic picture on cotton output from Texas.

The High Plains region of Texas, which is the United States’largest cotton producing area, will see a drastic abandonment of acres due to dry weather. Out of the 2.5 million acres of dry land crop planted this year, 2 million acres have been failed to date in the High Plains region of Texas. This region has about 2 million acres of irrigated crop planted, of which 214,000 acres have already failed by early August. Verett said, the High Plains region could expect a harvest of about of 1.8 million acres and a production of 2 million bales of cotton (480 pounds each).

Last year, High Plains region harvested 3.5 million acres and the production was 5.3 million bales of cotton. Given the extreme drought condition, there will be a loss of 3.3 million bales of cotton from the High Plains area, pointed Mr. Verett. In an answer to a question from this scribe about the global supply, Verett said“demand side is the key factor”. He expects world will have just enough cotton to meet the demand. The production loss in the United States will be offset by reported production increases in Brazil, India and China.

The global economic situation and the volatility in the stock markets are expected to tame down the demand for textiles and other non-essential items, which could create a balance in the supply and demand situation, said Mr. Verett.