TRADING COTTON Because of its popularity and versatility cotton is a heavily traded commodity and it is extremely important to world trade Cotton is grown in more than 100 countries Depending on the year cotton makes up approximately 30 percent of the world’s fiber trade output 3 Cotton is processed in a Chinese factory to keep up with the high demand of cotton exports from the country Because it is grown imported and exported by many countries around the world cotton is also a politically important crop It can have a large effect on a country’s economy especially in developing countries Cotton is a significant part of some countries gross domestic product GDP which is the total value of all goods and services produced in a country in one year The GDP is a primary indicator of a country’s economic health The T-Shirt People often wear T-shirts either in solid colors or with a design or slogan on them This wardrobe staple has a long history Back in 1880 sailors in the US Navy were issued undershirts that reached their elbows and fell to hip length When the shirts were laid out on a flat surface they resembled the letter T which is how they got their name Farmers miners and construction workers started wearing T-shirts because they were lightweight and better to wear in hot weather than button-up shirts They were also inexpensive and easy to clean One of the first printed T-shirts appeared in 1942 when a man wearing a T-shirt printed with the Army Air Forces Gunnery School was shown on the cover of LIFE magazine Soon after Mickey Mouse started appearing on T-shirts By the 1950s T-shirts became fashion statements They featured advertising slogans city or state names protest images art or other images and words 8
Cotton provides governments with tax income which countries receive from cotton growers or as taxes on imports and exports Cotton has been extremely important in the development of many African countries as well as Asian nations including Kazakhstan Uzbekistan Tajikistan Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan In 2015 the value of all cotton exported worldwide was more than 54 billion In the United States alone the cotton trade was worth more than 6 billion 4 It was one of the country’s most important crops because the money spent to grow and harvest it also created income for the processing shipping and textile production industries This means the original value of the cotton crop has value added to it with every new process piece of equipment or industry that receives money from handling it US farmers spend approximately 5 billion each year for the tools Cotton Is Money In the United States paper currency is made from 75 percent cotton and 25 percent linen 5 This makes the bills more durable than if they were made from wood pulp It also allows the US Mint to insert security fibers and other security features into the bills These features include security ribbons woven into the bill which glow pink under ultraviolet light as well as ribbons that create a changing 3D image Watermarks which are faint images that are woven into the paper and that are only visible when held up to light are also possible with cotton paper In an average year the US Mint prints six billion bills of all denominations 1 5 10 20 50 and 100 That is nearly 22,000 cotton bales The face value of all these bills combined is more than 219 billion which means every pound of cotton makes more than 21,000 in bills 6 10
equipment and services needed to grow cotton 7 Only China and India grow more cotton than the United States In the United States cotton is grown in 17 states from Virginia to California Cotton fields cover approximately 12 million acres 4 9 million ha US cotton farmers harvest approximately 15 million cotton bales every year totaling 7 3 billion pounds 3 3 billion kg Of this crop of cotton approximately 75 percent is used for clothing Another 18 percent is used for home furnishings while 7 percent goes to industrial products In addition nearly 5 2 million short tons 4 7 million metric tons of cottonseed and 90 million gallons 341 million L of cottonseed oil are also produced 8 STABILITY OF THE COTTON INDUSTRY However cotton as a trade commodity is somewhat unstable Part of this is because unlike commodities such as oil or lumber cotton is vulnerable to good and bad growing seasons A good crop of cotton might mean there is too much cotton available and prices fall as a result A bad growing year may result in insufficient cotton raising prices but also meaning farmers do not have as much to sell Cotton is subject to quotas under which some countries limit how much cotton can be imported or exported Other countries impose tariffs on imported cotton There is the added element of demand too In some years there is a greater demand for cotton But when the global economy is slower and not as many people are buying clothing and home goods textile manufacturers buy less cotton It is beneficial for farmers when cotton prices increase since they get more for their crops But high cotton prices might force textile manufacturers to use more 11
