According to Memphis-USA based National Cotton Council, early plantings intention survey show that 2013 U.S. cotton acres is expected to drop by 26.8% compared to 2012.

United States planting of all cottons (upland and extra-long staple) will be about 9.01 million acres. Upland cotton acres will be about 8.81 million acres and extra-long cotton acres will be 203,000 acres.

Abandonment due to weather will lead to harvesting acres of about 7.65 million acres, a 15.2 percentage drop from the intended planting acres.

Texas, which is the leading cotton producing state in the United States, is expected to plant 4.9 million acres. This is a 25% drop from the 2012 figure.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the total actual cotton acreage last year in the U.S. was 12.315 million acres and the production was 17.01 million bales (480 lbs each).

“Cotton producers are responding to market signals”, said Gary Adams, Vice President of the National Cotton Council.

Seshadri Ramkumar