Cotton, the global belt

The raw material of the world's textiles, cotton is concentrated in four countries: China, India, Brazil and the United States together grow ≈74% of the crop (≈122M bales in 2025/26). Long the top exporter, the US was overtaken by Brazil in 2023/24 (≈12.1 vs ≈11.8M bales); Brazil stays ahead in 2025/26 (≈15M bales) on yields nearly double US yields. Processing demand, meanwhile, has shifted to Southeast Asia. A handful of export basins thus feed spinning mills worldwide.