#Raw Materials

2022-09-01

Flooding and drought are having a crushing impact on the global cotton industry

The massive human suffering in Pakistan is painful to witness, with more than 33 million people affected and nearly 1,200 killed to date. The entire global cotton industry is keeping the country and its people in their thoughts and prayers.

Executive Summary

Highlights from the September 2022 Cotton This Month include:

The impacts of climate change are being felt in multiple major cotton-producing countries

Floods have been devastating in Pakistan, with nearly 1,200 people killed to date

More than 33 million people have been affected and the economic costs are approaching $10 billion

On the other side of the world, the West Texas crop has been gravely damaged by drought, with an estimated loss of 1 million tonnes compared to last year

Globally, we will see continued volatility and potentially higher prices throughout the entire 2022/23 season

The impact on the cotton crop will not be fully realised until the water subsides but sources on the ground are reporting a large reduction in the expected crop for the 2022/23 season. The ICAC is reducing the estimated production for Pakistan from 1.5 million tonnes to 1 million tonnes. Below is the current snapshot of the Pakistan balance sheet.

In the United States, the effects on the cotton crop in Texas have been devastating and currently amount to an estimated loss of over 1 million tonnes compared with the previous season. This puts the current US crop at just over 2.7 million tonnes. And while the West Texas region has received a good amount of rain in the past few weeks, the precipitation has come much too late to help the dry land cotton — and if bolls are open in irrigated fields, it could spell trouble for quality.

Price Projections*

The Secretariat’s current price forecast of the season-average A index for 2022/23 ranges from 99 cents to 157 cents, with a midpoint at 126.95 cents per pound.

* The price projection for 2022/23 is based on the ending stocks-to-mill use ratio in the world-less-China in 2020/21 (estimate), in 2021/22 (estimate) and in 2022/23 (projection), on the ratio of Chinese net imports to world imports in 2021/22 (estimate) and 2022/23 (projection), and the average price in 2021/22. The projection reflects a 95% confidence interval.

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 September 2022. The next Cotton This Month will be released on 3 October 2022.

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.