Turkey’s cotton business is expected to strengthen in the upcoming period due to an expected rise in the cotton harvested area, production, imports and total domestic consumption. Cotton harvested area is likely to increase due to favourable weather conditions, rising global cotton prices, better yield and increased incentives from the Turkish government.

The total domestic cotton consumption of the country will rise owing to high domestic demand during winter and festival season, which along with an insufficient supply, has augmented the country’s cotton imports. The US is a major supplier of cotton to Turkey.

Turkey’s cotton area harvested was 0.57 million hectares in market year (MY) 2019-20 (August 2019 to July 2020), according to Fibre2Fashion’s market analysis tool TexPro. It dropped by 38.60 per cent to 0.35 million hectares in MY 2020-21 due to the pandemic but is expected to rise again by 28.57 per cent to reach 0.45 million hectares in MY 2021-22.

Cotton production of the country was 0.75 million metric tons in MY 2019-20, which diminished by 16 per cent to 0.63 million metric tons in MY 2020-21. Now it is expected to rise by 19.05 per cent to 0.75 million metric tons in MY 2021-22.

As for the imports, the country imported 1.02 million metric tons of cotton in MY 2019-20 and 1.16 million metric tons in MY 2020-21. Turkey is now expected to import 1.18 million metric tons in MY 2021-22.

Turkey’s total consumption of cotton in MY 2019-20 was 1.45 million metric tons, which shot up by 13.79 per cent to 1.65 million metric tons in MY 2020-21, according to TexPro. The consumption may expand further by 10.61 per cent to 1.83 million metric tons in MY 2021-22.