#Raw Materials

2022-07-07

A rare period of stability in an up-and-down season

The ending cotton season has been a lot of things, but stable and consistent aren’t really among them. However, production and consumption in the final month of the 2021/22 season are virtually unchanged from the numbers in June.

Australia’s forecast has been revised upward slightly, adding 119,000 tonnes to the 2021/22 season and 41,000 tonnes for 2022/23. Consumption remains unchanged at 26.15 million tonnes, which still surpasses the expected production of 25.91 million tonnes despite Australia’s larger contribution.

However, don’t let the seeming stability fool you about what’s coming. The drastic increase in fuel and energy costs have had a direct impact on fertiliser prices and availability.

Worse, there are growing concerns that the world will experience multiple famines as a result of the conflict in Eastern Europe, which spells trouble for everyone but especially African nations. During the 2007-08 hunger crisis, the ICAC observed reductions in area under cotton and a decrease in production in Africa, especially the C4(+2) (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal). The effects from those reductions persisted through the 2011/12 season.

There is some good news, however: Africa has made gains in developing The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which went into effect on 30 May 2019, and the agreement has the potential to facilitate the movement of commodities across borders with the elimination of tariffs on most goods and services. The ICAC has been actively engaged in education and training efforts in several African countries, including the concept of regenerative agriculture. Those projects are longer-term but add significantly to the African cotton industry’s outlook in the coming years.

Given so many variables and unknowns, the Secretariat is temporarily suspending publication of price projections. We will reevaluate the price situation in August and determine if we should resume price forecast projection modelling. High volatility and extenuating circumstances in global markets make it difficult for any modelling framework to produce accurate and useful information. Please note that this is only a temporary pause and as soon as we are confident in the model data we will release projections. From a historical perspective, the only other time the price model was suspended was during the 2010/11 season of unprecedented high price and volatility.

Cotton This Month is published at the beginning of the month with the Cotton Update published mid-month. The Cotton Update, which is included in the Cotton This Month subscription, is a mid-month report with updated information on supply/demand estimates and prices. The next Cotton Update will be released on 15 July 2022. The next Cotton This Month will be released on 1 August 2022.

Highlights from the July 2022 Cotton This Month include:

With little movement in the numbers from last month, global consumption (26.15 million tonnes) is still expected to exceed production (25.91 million tonnes)

Things are not expected to remain stable for long, with issues from the pandemic and conflict in Eastern Europe still impacting the market

The cotton industry — and entire planet — will face much worse consequences if the looming global food crisis comes to pass

As has traditionally been the case, African nations will be hit the hardest by a food shortage

ICAC to support European Commission on pending PEF legislation

The International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) is proud to announce that it has been included as a member of the European Commission’s Technical Advisory Board (TAB) on the Product Environmental Footprint methodology. The Commission developed the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) to assess and communicate the life cycle environmental performance of products and organizations.

ICAC to collaborate with Uzbekistan and Bizpando on regenerative agriculture

The Government of Uzbekistan has allocated 55,000 hectares of land to implement a regenerative agriculture program for cotton as part of a collaborative project with the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) and Bizpando, a company with a a blockchain-based internet platform designed to ensure supply chain compliance.

Textile Exchange publishes cotton Life Cycle Assessment study to strengthen impact data

Textile Exchange has published the first in a series of seven Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies designed to improve the quality and robustness of environmental impact data for raw material production across the fashion, textile, and apparel industry. The first LCA study focuses on cotton and addresses critical data gaps and methodology variability through new high-quality data across key producing countries. The study includes organic, regenerative, recycled, and country averages for conventional cotton production systems, providing a clearer picture of the associated environmental impact.

Fashion for Good mobilises industry to adopt mass balance attribution and accelerate decarbonisation

Fashion for Good launches today the Mass Balance Demonstrator project, a collaborative industry initiative to implement and scale the mass balance attribution (MBA) chain-of-custody model for biomass-attributed PET in textile applications. The project represents a concrete step toward accelerating brand-driven decarbonisation across the apparel value chain.

A Powerful Opening: Global thought leaders launch the International Cotton Conference Bremen

The International Cotton Conference Bremen will open on 25 March 2026 in the Parliament building of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen with a keynote session of exceptional calibre. Distinguished international experts will set the stage for the conference by offering incisive perspectives on the most pressing challenges and the defining trends shaping the future of the global cotton trade. Their insights will span a broad spectrum — from geopolitically driven disruptions affecting global supply chains to the opportunities emerging from innovation-led agriculture capable of supporting a growing world population. Together, these opening keynotes will frame the dialogue of the conference, highlighting both the complexity of today’s market environment and the pathways toward a resilient and forward-looking cotton sector.

Lenzing Group positions bio‑based materials as a strategic asset for Europe’s economic security

The Lenzing Group, a leading supplier of regenerated cellulose fibers for the textile and nonwovens industries, hosted a high‑level roundtable in Brussels to discuss how bio‑based materials can strengthen Europe’s economic security and support the shift toward a fossil‑free future. Organized in cooperation with Euractiv, the event brought together representatives of the European Commission, the UK Mission to the EU, academia, civil society, and industry.

VANDEWIELE Group at Techtextil 2026 – Textile innovations together

The VANDEWIELEGroup will showcase its latest technologies for technical textiles at Techtextil 2026 in Frankfurt from April 21–24 (Hall 12.0, Stand C21). As a global leader in textile machinery, the group brings together specialised brands to support the evolving demands of high-performance textile applications. Visitors will discover solutions in laboratory testing, yarn joining, yarn feeding and thread tension monitoring, designed to create measurable value across the textile value chain.