Cotton industry information resource Cotlook has said the 2022-2023 crop in the US is likely to be the smallest since 2015-2016.

Previously, the US Department of Agriculture had forecast a 2022-2023 crop of 16.5 million bales. In early July, it reduced this to 15.5 million owing to chronic drought, exceptionally high temperatures and high winds in west Texas, the US’s largest cotton-growing region.

As July continued, however, Texas saw what Cotlook as described as “an unfolding crop disaster” and it has revised its own estimate of the US crop for this year to a level below 14.4 million bales, which would be the smallest crop since the 2015-2016 season.

Image: Kay Ledbetter, Texas A&M University.

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