Australia produces world's highest cotton yields

Date:04-25-2014

Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of raw cotton with over 90 per cent of the domestic crop exported, mainly to China, Indonesia and Thailand.

Cotton is predominantly irrigated and grown in New South Wales (NSW) and southern Queensland.

Australia is an efficient producer with the world’s highest cotton yields due to the predominance of irrigation, the use of genetically modified varieties and effective management.

The industry receives a low level of assistance from government and operates under an unregulated marketing system.

The area planted to cotton in NSW is forecast to decline slightly in 2014/15 to 248,000 hectares, but the yield will increase slightly due to the low share of dryland cotton. Cotton plantings in Queensland are forecast to fall three per cent to 132,000 hectares. For Australia overall, the area of cotton planted is expected to be around 380,000 hectares in 2014/15.

The details can be found here.