The Southern Hemisphere ordinarily plays a small role in cotton production, growing 8-10 percent of the world crop. This season is shaping up differently, says the International Cotton Advisory Committee, with the hemisphere expected to account for 11 percent of global output.
Amid a retrenchment due to low prices, growers in Australia are expected to double cotton plantings to a total of 300,000 hectares. With a larger portion of the crop coming from dryland cotton, production could total 560,000 tonnes in 2015/16, an 11-percent increase from the previous season, says ICAC, an intergovernmental body. Brazil, the other major cotton producer in the Southern Hemisphere, is projected to reduce plantings 4 percent and to grow nearly 1.5 million tonnes
ICAC says global production will fall 13 percent, or 3.3 million tonnes, in 2015/16, with the biggest reductions among Northern Hemisphere countries. Output in the Southern Hemisphere would drop by a comparatively mild 2 percent.