Global Cotton at 25.9 Million Tons | ICAC’s View of 2026/27

Cotton, which supports many T-shirts and shirts, is the world’s second most-produced fiber after polyester. Using the outlook presented by the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) at the WTO “Cotton Day” in May 2026, we follow the current state of cotton through the numbers.

Production is expected to slightly exceed consumption

ICAC forecasts global cotton production in the 2026/27 season at 25.9 million tons and consumption at 25.3 million tons. For the previous 2025/26 season, the organization also expects production of about 26.0 million tons and consumption of about 25.7 million tons, meaning supply and demand are continuing to remain nearly balanced.

The composition of producing countries in the 2026/27 forecast is China 27%, India 21%, Brazil 15%, the United States 12%, and West Africa 4%. The top four countries account for about three-quarters of the world total. On the consumption side, the list includes countries that are hubs for spinning and sewing: China 32%, India 22%, Pakistan 8%, Bangladesh 7%, and Vietnam 7%. Exports rank in the order of Brazil 31%, the United States 29%, and Australia 11%.

India has 40% of the area, while yields differ by a factor of 5

What is interesting is that the size of the fields and the harvest volume do not match. The world’s cotton cultivation area in the 2026/27 season is 30.17 million hectares, of which 11.8 million hectares, or 39%, are in India. On the other hand, yield per hectare is 2,414 kilograms in China, 2,325 kilograms in Australia, and 1,868 kilograms in Brazil, compared with 458 kilograms in India. The global average is 859 kilograms. Differences in irrigation, varieties, and cultivation methods create this much variation even within the same cotton crop.

Key numbers
Global cotton production in the 2026/27 season is forecast at 25.9 million tons, with consumption at 25.3 million tons (ICAC forecast). India has 39% of the world’s cultivation area, while its yield per unit area is about half the global average.

According to Textile Exchange’s figures, cotton accounted for about 19% of global fiber production as of 2024. The overall scale and breakdown of all fibers are covered in detail in the article on the world’s 132 million tons of fiber production. Even with the same cotton shirt, tracing which country and what kind of field it came from can slightly change how the material appears to us.

References: International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), World Trade Organization (WTO), Textile Exchange

—The Value Village Editorial Team