USDA has released its November 2024 World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report. Here’s this month’s summary for cotton, showing lower production and export numbers for the U.S., as well as lower production, consumption, and trade numbers globally.

The U.S. cotton balance sheet for 2024/25 shows marginally lower production, lower exports, and higher ending stocks. NASS revised its estimate for U.S. all-cotton production downward by 10,000 bales to just below 14.2 million in its November Crop Production report. The Georgia crop is raised about 200,000 bales, offset by a similar reduction in the Texas crop with assorted small changes elsewhere. The national all-cotton yield estimate is unchanged from last month at 789 pounds per harvested acre.

With global consumption and imports reduced, U.S. exports are reduced 200,000 bales to 11.3 million. Ending stocks are raised 200,000 bales to 4.3 million for a stocks-to-use ratio of about 33%. The 2024/25 season average upland farm price is unchanged at 66 cents per pound. There are no revisions to the 2023/24 U.S. cotton balance sheet.

World production, consumption, beginning and ending stocks, and trade are all reduced in the 2024/25 global balance sheet. Production is lowered by 460,000 bales, with the largest reductions for Pakistan and Turkmenistan. Consumption is reduced by 515,000 bales, primarily due to decreases for Turkey and Pakistan. Ending stocks are lowered by 574,000 bales with large reductions for India, Turkmenistan, and Pakistan more than offsetting increases for the United States and Uzbekistan.

Reduced imports by Turkey, offset to a degree by higher imports by Uzbekistan and Egypt, lead to a 295,000-bale reduction in world trade. In the 2023/24 global balance sheet, historical revisions to production result in lower ending stocks.