Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Cotton futures rose to a one-month high on concern that severe weather will hamper the harvest in parts of the U.S., the worldΆs leading exporter.
As of Nov. 24, U.S. cotton farmers gathered 78 percent of this yearΆs crop, below the 88 percent collected at the same time a year earlier and the five-year average of 83 percent, the Department of Agriculture said yesterday. Above-normal rains this week will delay fieldwork across the Southeast, including Georgia, and the wet conditions may erode the quality of the fiber, according to forecaster World Weather Inc.
“ThereΆs some nervousness about the crops, in particular in Georgia and the Carolinas, which were already running behind,” Sterling Smith, a futures specialist at Citigroup Inc. in Chicago, said in a telephone interview.
Cotton for March delivery rose 0.9 percent to settle at 79.14 cents a pound at 2:33 p.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York, after touching 79.65 cents, the highest for a most-active contract since Oct. 25.