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Cotton demand is a big unknown

The president and CEO of the National Cotton Council says cotton demand has been weak lately and it’s unclear when it might recover.

Gary Adams tells Brownfield “hopefully, we’ll see some recovery as we move later into this year, but it’s tough on the consumer side, because with higher fuel prices, housing and interest rates up, apparel purchases are sometimes discretionary. It’s tough when you’re competing for the consumer’s dollar.”

Adams says globally, China has been a consistent customer, but the short U.S. crop from 2023 has limited exportable supplies “and another factor is Brazil and Australia are strong competitors in the export market as well.”

He says this year’s cotton crop might yield more supplies, but it all depends on the weather in the Texas Panhandle.

“If we can continue to get timely rains, I think production can rebound at 15 to 16 million bales and last year, we were at at 12 to 13 million bale crop.”

Brownfield interviewed Adams at the Abner Womack Missouri Ag Outlook Conference.