**2. World cotton production**

As earlier mentioned, cotton is one of the most important agricultural products widely grown and traded in the world. Approximately 3% of the total cultivation areas of developing countries are devoted to cotton farming.

It is a cash crop with which millions of farmers worldwide can meet the cash needs to satisfy their basic necessities. The income generated from this crop makes great contributions to the welfare level of rural households, especially in developing countries. It is also important for the countries to be an export crop to earn foreign currencies and a raw material for the textile industry [10].

## *The Strategic Importance of Cotton Production for the World and Türkiye DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114084*

Cotton also provides additional employment opportunities in direct or indirect ways such as textile production, feed, oil, paper, chipboard, and medium density fibreboards (MDF) productions, demand-creating for industrial products such as agricultural machinery-equipment and fertilizers.

Cotton has played an active role in industrialization process in the world since the eighteenth century and continues to play its central role as an important source of income for developing countries today [11].

When having a look at the world cotton production statistics from 1950 to the present; one can observe that production has increased approximately four times despite the limited upward shift in acreage (**Tables 1** and **2**).

The world average seed cotton yield was realized to be 2610 kg per hectare in 2020. China ranked first with an average yield of 9080 kg per hectare among the countries achieving high seed cotton yields in 2020. Although ranking first for many years regarding the seed cotton yield, Australia managed to find second place in the list with an average yield of 5340 kg/ha. Türkiye ranked third on the list with a yield of about 5 tonnes per hectare well above the world average. India, one of the world's largest cotton producers, and the African countries, which have expanded their cotton acreages, grow cotton with yields below the world average [12].

When having a look at the average cotton yields it is noteworthy that there is a significant yield difference among the countries. India, the second largest cotton producer in the world, ranks 37th regarding seed cotton yields with an average of 1380 kg per hectare. It is thought that the basis of these differences is the different ecological conditions and the variations in production techniques of the countries (**Table 1**). In the last 70 years, in parallel with the increases in cotton production in the world, its consumption has increased approximately three times. It is thought that the main factors affecting this increase are the development of the textile and ready-made clothing industry, the increases in the world population and the gross national product per capita, the synthetic fiber consumption trend and prices.

Cotton is grown mostly in Asia. Approximately 69.87% of the world's cotton acreage is in Asia. Amerika, Africa, Europe, and Australia rank second, third, fourth and fifth with the shares of 22.53, 5.81, 1.34 and 0.45% in respective order. In the 20/20 season, approximately 29 million farmers grow cotton in 83 countries worldwide.


#### **Table 1.**

*Seed cotton yields by country between 2016 and 2020 (kg/da).*



#### **Table 2.**

*Cotton harvest area of top 10 producer countries between 2016 and 2020.*

About 84% of global cotton production was achieved by 7 countries including India, China, America, Brazil, Pakistan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan [13].

Regarding seed cotton production, the top 10 countries, and their production statistics between 2016 and 2020 were presented in **Table 3**. China alone produced the one-third of the global production of about 83 million tonnes in 2020. Türkiye came 7th with about 2% of global share after Uzbekistan. It is clear from **Table 3** that China, Brazil, Argentina, and Benin increased their seed cotton production successively. World total production followed the same trend except for a slight decrease in 2020. However, seed cotton production of other countries varied across the 5 years and decreased especially in Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Türkiye in recent years (**Table 3**).

The most important reason for these fluctuations is obviously related to the changes in harvested area (**Table 2**). Yet it might also be arisen due to the variations in fiber length and quality because of the changes in ecological conditions which also alter from place to place by years.

Regarding seed cotton consumption, top 10 countries, and their production statistics available for the latest 5 years between 2015 and 2019 were presented in


*The Strategic Importance of Cotton Production for the World and Türkiye DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114084*

**Table 3.**

*Seed cotton production of top 10 countries between 2016 and 2020 (thousand tonnes).*

**Table 4**. As in the production statistics, the first five countries with the highest seed cotton consumption are the same except for the change in ranking between China and India. Yet, Türkiye comes fifth after Pakistan, moving up two ranks compared to the ranking list for the top 10 largest producer countries.

From the production and consumption statistics presented in **Tables 3** and **4**, it is obvious that the largest cotton-producer countries have also the largest demand for cotton at the same time [14].

World cotton imports show an increasing trend continuously. For example, cotton imports have increased by 66.16% (34,128,689 thousand USD) for the years between 1990 and 2020 [15]. It is obvious from **Table 5** that the commercial value of cotton maintains and increases its importance.

Cotton imports and exports were examined in seed cotton, fiber cotton and cottonseed items separately and the trade values were presented in **Table 5**. World cotton export values show an increasing trend as is the case with import values. According to the export values for the years 1990–2020 cotton exports increased by about 80% [16].



#### **Table 4.**

*Fiber cotton production by country between 2015 and 2019 (in thousand tonnes).*


*The Strategic Importance of Cotton Production for the World and Türkiye DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114084*


**Table 5.**

*Cotton imports by country in 2020 (in thousand USD) [15].*

The data presented in **Tables 3**–**5** show that the leading countries in seed cotton exports are more or less the same countries of production and import with slight differences in ranking. However, the ranking differs regarding fiber cotton and cottonseed exports. Yet, USA, India, Türkiye and Brazil can find places among the top 10 countries of seed cotton, fiber cotton and cotton seed exports.

It can be seen from **Table 6** that developing countries must compete with developed countries, such as the USA and China, in order to have a share of the global export market. Countries such as China, India, Brazil and Türkiye play a more active role in the global cotton market as they are more economically developed countries than African and some Asian cotton producer countries.

Cotton, one of the most important industrial crops for China and India, which are the world's largest fiber cotton producers, has 1% share of the GDP in these two countries. It makes up some 0.2% of GDP in Brazil as its share is only 0.03% in Argentina where a shrinkage is experienced in the sector [17]. On the other hand, while cotton


#### **Table 6.**

*Cotton export values by country as of 2020 (thousand USD) [15].*

production in Brazil constitutes 0.2% of GDP, it accounts for only 0.03% of GDP in Argentina, where the sector is shrinking.

The countries having a large share of global production such as China and USA and their production and stock sizes shape international market prices for cotton [18]. The production volumes and prices of other substitute fiber products, that are important for the textile industry such as wool, mohair, synthetic yarn, and the value of the USD against other currencies also play an important role in formation of cotton prices at international market [19]. In addition, the subsidies given by developed countries to their cotton producers negatively affect the competitiveness of other countries [20].
