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

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. 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 tons to one million tons.

In the United States, the effects on the cotton crop in Texas have been devastating and currently amount to an estimated loss of over a million tons compared with the previous season. This puts the current US crop at just over 2.7 million tons. 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.

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