Cotton farmers in the U.S., the world’s biggest exporter, may boost planting by 20 percent this year after prices jumped to a record, a Bloomberg News survey showed.
Planting will rise to 13.136 million acres from 10.97 million in 2010, according to the average forecast of 18 analysts and traders surveyed this week. Cotton futures have more than doubled in the past year. On March 7, the price touched $2.197 a pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York, the highest ever.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will release its first survey-based forecast for cotton acreage on March 31 at 8:30 a.m. in Washington.
Forecasts for U.S.
Planted Cotton Acres 2011
============================================================== ABN Amro Clearing 11.80 ADM Investor Services 13.10 AgriVisor LLC 13.00 Brugler Marketing 13.00 Country Hedging 13.37 EFG Group 13.00 FCStone 13.2 Global Commodity Analytics 12.9 Golman Sachs 13.3 Informa 13.13 Kropf & Love 13.30 Linn Group 13.20 Northstar Commodities 14.00 Penson 13.20 Plexus 13.25 Stevens 13.00 Stewart-Peterson 13.5 Texas A&M 13.2 ==================================== Average 13.136