As textile companies across the world scramble to buy any cotton they can find, those searching for top-quality cotton in Turkey will have to pay a little bit more. Antbirlik, a cooperative union for citrus and cotton headquartered in the province of Antalya, has announced an increase in their purchase price for “white ST-1 quality” cotton.

The price increase is not insignificant, going up nearly 17 percent, from 1.8 Turkish liras ($1.16) to 2.1 liras ($1.35), and comes on the heels of a previous bump in price, according to a story from Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review.

“Cotton, which used to be called white gold, is more valuable than gold now due to the changes in the commodity markets in recent years. Therefore, we decided to further increase our purchase price for cotton, which we only recently increased from 1.6 Turkish liras to 1.8,” according to Antbirlik Chairman, Abdullah Balaban.

However, just as the rising tide lifts all boats, increasing prices rarely affect only one type of cotton, according to Levent Sadik Amet, founder of Istanbul-based DCT Trading. “Prices here in Turkey are rising not only for the highest-quality cotton, but for lower grades as well,” Amet told Cotton International. “People are buying any type of cotton they can find, even if its quality isn’t the very best. We have been importing heavily from Greece, as well as from the U.S. crop, and if the Indian government decides to allow exports again, buyers in Turkey will start looking to India, too.”