Browse Data and Analysis

The 2021 U.S. Agricultural Export Yearbook provides a statistical summary of U.S. agricultural commodity exports to the world.

Declining cases of COVID-19 globally and domestically are expected to increase overall demand for textile and textile products. Therefore, following an 8.2 percent decline in 2020/21, cotton imports are expected rebound by 12.7 percent to 2.6 million bales in 2021/22.

Higher downstream demand for textiles and garments and reduced cotton yarn imports are expected to raise spinning demand for cotton in marketing year (MY) 22/23, lifting cotton imports to an estimated 2.3 million metric tons (MMT).

FAS Bangkok (Post) forecasts marketing year (MY) 2022/23 cotton imports slightly larger than MY2021/22 in line with the global economic recovery and anticipated rising demand from key foreign trade partners. There has been a significant increase of imported cotton in MY2021/22 due to foreign customers’ pent-up demand for both textile and garment products from the previous years.

Despite ongoing high demand, Post estimates that U.S. cotton exports to Vietnam will decline by 25 percent in marketing year (MY) 21/22 due to price volatility, ongoing logistical challenges, and tough competition from Australia. Post forecasts Vietnam cotton imports for MY22/23 will increase 5 percent to approximately 8.2 million bales or about 1.78 million metric tons (MMT).

Cotton production in Australia is primed to set a new record of 6 million bales in MY 2022/23, after a bumper harvest estimate of 5.5 million bales in MY 2021/22. This forecast is due to the strong prospect of increased irrigation water availability at the start of planting in October 2022 along with current high cotton prices and strong futures prices.