Ours is a service orientated company representative of the total South African cotton pipeline representing cotton producers, ginners, spinners, clothing and the household textile sector, consumers and labour. At Cotton SA, we are engaged into activities like rendering information service to all role players; promoting cotton production and usage; check on maintenance of quality norms; co-ordination in research; facilitating development of small scale cotton farming sector; acting as representative industry forum; and last but not least – overseeing implementation of Cotton Strategic Plan.

Cotton has great value as a rotational crop in South Africa and especially works well with wheat. South African cotton yields, compared to the rest of Africa are also outstanding. Yields are lately on average about 1000 kilograms cotton lint per hectare which is the highest in Africa. Although local cotton production is small, the qualities produced are as a rule excellent, with about 80% of the crop normally in the higher quality categories of Middling to Good Middling. The quality profile of the SA cotton crop predominantly falls within the medium to high category cottons that are highly suitable for export. Due to low levels of contamination the SA crop is rated amongst the least contaminated cotton in the world which gives SA a competitive advantage over many of its counterparts in Africa. The cotton crop is also homogeneous in terms of quality. This can be explained by the standardisation of varieties as basically only two varieties are cultivated in the country. From the above it is clear that there is a future for the primary cotton industry in South Africa with real prospects to expand production again, especially in the emerging farming sector.

Over the past few seasons, cotton production in South Africa has gradually been declining to reach the lowest level in more than 45 years in the 2009/10 marketing season. The expected crop of about 8 500 tons cotton lint is one of the smallest on record and is about 90% less than the record crop of 20 years ago.

Were it not for the introduction of biotech cotton 10 years ago which enabled irrigation growers to increase their yields by almost 50% over this period, irrigated cotton would probably have followed the same trend as dryland cotton production.

Cotton consumption by local spinning mills has shown a similar decline as production. Over the past 10 years the local consumption of cotton decreased by about 39% and is currently about 45% down from levels of 6 years ago. This trend can mainly be ascribed to the continued imports of low-priced textiles and apparel from Asia and also because of the relative stronger Rand against the US dollar, all of which impact negatively on local demand as well as on textile and clothing exports. The decline in the economy as a result of the current global economic crisis further contributes to the declining demand for cotton.

At this stage a further decrease in cotton lint consumption by South African spinning mills is expected for the 2009/10 marketing year. Please click here to view further details of Hectares Planted & Yield For SA.