Signs for the new crop are good, Cotton Australia says
Industry trade body Cotton Australia has said it expects the country’s cotton crop for the 2024-2025 season to be 4.8 million bales.
This would be higher than the figure of 4.4 million bales that the organisation estimated at planting time in October, but below the record figure of 2021-2022, when Australian farmers achieved a crop of 5.6 million bales.
Early cotton picking began in some parts of Australia before the end of January, but rains in February have encouraged farmers to leave cotton on many hectares “to grow on”, in some cases until May.
Cotton Australia general manager, Michael Murray, said the signs were good across the country. “Most of our growers have enjoyed favourable weather conditions,” he explained, “but we are mindful that some have been impacted by negative conditions such as very heavy rain, hail or a lack of enough in-season rainfall.”
He said that the anticipated volume of cotton from this season’s crop would generate more than 3.3 billion Australian dollars (just over US $2 billion) for the economy.
