THE country's cotton production will at least match last year's output after rainfall improved crop conditions, the industry's peak growing group indicated yesterday.

Production this year may be 1.4 million to 1.5 million bales, compared with 1.4 million bales last year, said the chief executive of Cotton Australia, Adam Kay. Each bale weighs 227 kilograms.

Rain in NSW and Queensland since Christmas had improved ''once-dim'' yield prospects, the commodity research company FCStone wrote in a note this week. Australia's output more than doubled last year after years of drought. Harvesting of most of the crop begins in April.

Australia is the fifth-largest cotton exporter.

''The crops are about halfway through the season and the rains have been invaluable,'' Mr Kay said yesterday. ''It was starting to look a bit desperate in a couple of areas. This rain has meant we now have enough water to make sure the crop can be fully irrigated … so it will achieve its full yield and be of high quality.'' But the rainfall missed big water storages that supplied irrigation for the crop, leaving producers still uncertain about prospects for next season, Mr Kay said.