Cotton, a leading fiber used for the textile industry, is derived from the cotton plants of the Gossypium genus of the Malvaceae family. Raw cotton is a delicate and feathery fiber that sprout as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant. The cotton fiber is composed of essentially natural cellulose. The cotton plant grows in the equatorial and subtropical land of the world. Mexico, Australia, and Africa own the immense range of natural cotton species. Cotton was autonomously tamed in together the Old and the New World. Archeological mining has brought to light that cotton was used since prehistoric times. In Mexico and the Indus Valley, cotton fabric dating back to 5000 BC have been recovered.
Cotton Production In The World
Although cotton has been harvested in the world since ancient times, the invention of worm-gear roller gin in India in the 16th century and then the modern mechanical cotton gin in 1793 by the American inventor Eli Whitney, gave way to the large-scale commercial production of cotton. It also reduced the cost of the product making cotton the most widely used natural fiber used in the textile industry of the modern world.
Approximately, the world production of cotton is about 110 million bales or 25 million tons annually. China is the world’s top cotton producing country but most of the cotton produced here is utilized by the domestic market. India stands second in cotton production but a bulk fraction of the cotton produced here is also put to use by the Indian textile industry. The United States rated third in cotton production in the world.
Below are the 15 countries that exported the highest dollar value worth of cotton during 2017:
- China: US$15.1 billion (28.2% of total exported cotton)
- United States: $7.6 billion (14.2%)
- India: $4.7 billion (8.8%)
- Pakistan: $3.5 billion (6.5%)
- Vietnam: $2.6 billion (4.9%)
- Turkey: $1.7 billion (3.2%)
- Australia: $1.6 billion (3%)
- Hong Kong: $1.6 billion (3%)
- Brazil: $1.5 billion (2.8%)
- Italy: $1.4 billion (2.7%)