Australian Cotton Season Underway

The 2015-16 cotton season is underway across Australia’s cotton-growing valleys, stretching from Emerald in Queensland’s Central Highlands district to the NSW Riverina and southern valleys.

Warm Spring temperatures in a number of districts are providing the majority of cotton growers with ideal planting conditions.

Cotton Australia CEO, Adam Kay, says growers are optimistic and expect high average yields to continue this season.

“With planting still underway, at this stage we are anticipating a national cotton crop of approximately 200,000 hectares, or 2 million bales, for 2015-16. That’s worth more than $1 billion in export value,” Mr Kay says.

“We recognise that some growers are doing it tough again this season due to a reduction in the availability of water.”

“Decent rainfall has the potential to see the area planted to dryland, or rain-fed, cotton increased,” Mr Kay says.

Mr Kay says that despite the lack of water in some valleys, the industry continues its expansion south near the NSW/Victoria border.

“We continue to experience growth in our industry due to an increase in the area planted to cotton in Southern NSW. Southern growers typically have access to more reliable irrigation water sources,” Mr Kay says.

“Australian growers continue to produce some of the highest quality, highest yielding cotton in the world using fewer natural resources than ever before. In the last decade, our industry has increased water use efficiency by 40% and reduced insecticide use by 89%.”

“The industry’s commitment to best practice and continuous improvement underpins Cotton Australia’s efforts to position Australian cotton in the world fibre market by engaging directly with some of the world’s major manufacturers, brands and retailers,” Mr Kay says.