Cotton

The seed fibre of a warm-climate shrub: the leading natural textile fibre, competing every season with polyester.

Fibres & forest · No. 104

• Not on a critical list
• HHI 1,378 · unconcentrated

Your T-shirt's cotton competes every season with polyester, and China sits on nearly half the world's stored bales.

Chart: Illustration: Cotton

Where it comes from

Chart: Map of where it comes from

Cotton is a warm-season crop grown from Texas to Xinjiang and Gujarat, much of it irrigated and heavily sprayed. World lint output was 24.7 Mt in 2023.

Three things to know

1. China held about 48% of world cotton stocks in 2025/26, 36.24 of 75.7 million bales, much of it in state reserves.
2. Brazil, at 30.9% of export value, edged past the United States at 30.0% as the top raw cotton exporter in 2024.
3. In real 2010 dollars, the 2025 cotton price of $1.47/kg was the lowest of the past fifteen years.

The journey

1. 1 FieldSeed cotton grown, often irrigated
2. 2 GinningLint separated from the seed
3. 3 BalingPressed into 480-lb bales and classed
4. 4 SpinningSpun into yarn
5. 5 WeavingWoven or knitted into fabric
6. 6 GarmentsClothes, towels and bedding

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