Cotton Newsline: March 29, 2017

For the past three years, U.S. cotton producers have struggled with low cotton prices, high production costs, and the resulting financial hardships. While current futures markets have increased since last year, many producers continue to face economic challenges. Along with those challenges, China, one of the main customers of U.S. cotton, is working through their own massive state reserves of the commodity crop. While China’s reserve auction sales have led to increased consumption by mills, this also has limited China’s imports of raw cotton fiber and cotton yarn. Dr. Jody Campiche, Vice President of Economics and Policy Analysis for the National Cotton Council, joins us with the latest numbers since the auctions began earlier this month and explains some of the factors affecting the sales.