# Cotton

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

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cotton/

Fibres & forest · No. 104

- Not on a critical list
- HHI 1,378 · unconcentrated
 Fibres & forest · Foundation · Matter

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 **Field**Seed cotton grown, often irrigated
2. 2 **Ginning**Lint separated from the seed
3. 3 **Baling**Pressed into 480-lb bales and classed
4. 4 **Spinning**Spun into yarn
5. 5 **Weaving**Woven or knitted into fabric
6. 6 **Garments**Clothes, towels and bedding
 Covered in [What makes something a commodityCommodities](https://www.materialinsights.org/learn/commodities/what-is-a-commodity/)[Prices and cyclesCommodities](https://www.materialinsights.org/learn/commodities/prices-and-cycles/)[How commodities tradeCommodities](https://www.materialinsights.org/learn/commodities/how-commodities-trade/)[How commodities moveCommodities](https://www.materialinsights.org/learn/commodities/how-commodities-move/)[From building blocks to plastics, fibres and detergentsChemicals](https://www.materialinsights.org/learn/chemicals/building-blocks-to-polymers/)[Colour and protection: dyes, pigments, paints and coatingsChemicals](https://www.materialinsights.org/learn/chemicals/dyes-pigments-coatings/)and 2 more

##### Go deeper pick a tab to open it in full

## Other sections

- [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cotton/overview/index.md)
- [Correlation](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cotton/correlation/index.md)
- [Extraction](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cotton/extraction/index.md)
- [Production](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cotton/production/index.md)
- [Stocks](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cotton/stocks/index.md)
- [Cycles](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cotton/cycles/index.md)
- [Trading](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cotton/trading/index.md)
- [Movement](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cotton/movement/index.md)
- [Criticality](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cotton/criticality/index.md)
- [Characteristics](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cotton/characteristics/index.md)
- [Emissions](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cotton/emissions/index.md)
- [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/cotton/links/index.md)