- In 2005/06 the world’s main cotton exporters were the USA, India, Uzbekistan, and Australia (Source: ICAC, 2006)
- 98 per cent of cotton grown in Australia is exported, mainly to Asian spinning mill customers (Source: ICAC, 2007)
- In 2005/06 China, Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea and Japan were the main markets for Australian cotton (Source: ABS)
- In 2006/07 a total of 487,000 tonnes of raw cotton, valued at around A$832 million, was exported (Source: ICAC, 2007) – this was severely drought affected and about 64% of ‘normal’ production
- Cotton is one of Australia’s highest rural export earners (Source: ABARE 2006)
- In non-drought years, Australia’s average yearly cotton production has risen from 9,000 bales in the 1960s to three million bales a year
- The enormous growth in Australia’s cotton production coincided with growth in the textiles markets of some of Australia’s nearest trading neighbours
- In 2006/07 the world’s main cotton importers were China, Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, Mexico, Thailand, Bangladesh and Russia (Source: ICAC, 2007)
- Australia enjoys an open, sophisticated and highly competitive marketing system whereby growers forward-sell their crops directly to marketing companies
- Cotton’s share of the world fibre market fell from 50 per cent in 1986 to 40 per cent in 2005 where it remains stable. However, total cotton production and consumption continued to rise in the same period (Source: ICAC, 2007)
- The decline in cotton’s market share is primarily a result of increasingly competitive synthetic fibre prices, particularly in developing countries (Source: ICAC, 2005)
- Australian processing and marketing companies include Dunavant, Namoi Cotton, Cargill, Auscott, Queensland Cotton and Weil Brothers
- The world price of cotton is dependent on a number of factors including the state of the world economy, agricultural politics, fashion trends, synthetic fibre price, weather, natural disasters and cotton’s own supply and demand
- Australia exports cottonseed to Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia and the USA depending on parity price and the value of the Australian dollar
- In 2007/08 Australia produced 152,00 tonnes of cottonseed with a value of A$46 million, sold to international markets for stock feed and other uses (Source: ACIC, 2008)
