A snapshot report titled ‘Cotton with a Conscience’ outlines Australian cotton’s significant contributions to the country’s economy. The report finds not only does Australian cotton industry employ 12,500 people in rural areas it also contributes $1.8 billion a year to the national economy. The report finds the industry to be a strong supporter of women, who were well represented on-farm and in jobs such as ginning, agronomy, research and marketing. The proportion of women working in key industry organizations was 60 per cent.

Cotton farmers made the vast majority of their business expenses in rural towns and regional centers and 71 per cent made regular donations to local charities and programs. The Cotton with a Conscience report included 25 case study examples of how the cotton industry was giving back, from donating cotton towels to wires during the recent bushfires and releasing more than 200,000 baby fish into rivers, to tackling issues like Aboriginal employment and rural mental health.

Cotton Australia and the Cotton Research and Development Corporation are currently working on establishing industry-wide social targets and a follow-up piece of research that will provide further evidence and hard data around cotton’s social and economic contributions.