GLOBAL: Global organic cotton output grows 20% in 2009

LONDON: Organic cotton weathered the global economic storm during the 2008-09 farming season, albeit with challenges, according to a new report by Organic Exchange (OE) documenting growth and challenges in the global organic fiber sector released here on Tuesday. Production grew an impressive 20 percent over 2007-08 to 175,113 metric tons (802,599 bales) grown on 625,000 acres (253,000 hectares). Organic cotton now represents 0.76 percent of global cotton production.

According to the fourth annual Organic Exchange Farm and Fiber Report 2009, organic cotton was grown in 22 countries worldwide with the top ten producer countries being led by India, and including (in order of rank) Turkey, Syria, Tanzania, China, United States, Uganda, Peru, Egypt and Burkina Faso. Approximately 220,000 farmers grew the fiber.

However, the situation had been far from rosy. Despite major market players sticking to their commitments to use organic cotton in their apparel and home textile products, there simply wasnít the market for products (organic or conventional) in general, given the global economic downturn.

In addition, a number of farmers had planted vast acreage of organic cotton on speculation and in response to what had appeared to be a healthy, burgeoning marketplace. As a result, unsold stocks which represent between 17 and 22 percent of production (some 30,000 to 35,000 tons (137,789 to 160,754 bales) of organic cotton has yet to find buyers.

The report also said the global retail sales of organic cotton and home textile products topped 3.2 billion US dollars in 2008. "2008-09 was a year of challenges for the organic cotton sector, but also one that highlights the need to improve recordkeeping, forecasting, pricing, and communication systems and gain more firm commitments and contracts," noted Simon Ferrigno, OE Organic Exchange

Farm Development Team manager and lead author of the report. Organic production is based on a system of farming that maintains and replenishes soil fertility without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and fertilizers or genetically-modified seeds.