There is no doubt that cotton in Azerbaijan carries significance far beyond its meager 2% contribution to the overall output in the agriculture sector. At a recent regional conference held in the Sabirabad District, which was tasked with implementing the decisions made by President Ilham Aliyev during the May 25 agricultural development conference, Agriculture Minister Majnun Mammadov gave the numbers behind the significance of cotton. The production and processing of cotton alone employ about 50,000 permanent and temporary employees and thus affect the lives of up to 200,000 to 300,000 people, out of a population of about 10.2 million. Given that only 6.3% of land is used for crop cultivation, this has quite a large impact on the country's economy. Historically, "white gold" (cotton) contributed around 25% of the nation's agricultural revenue. While that share has fluctuated, it remains a heavily state-subsidized, strategic pillar of the non-oil economy.

However, the global market environment surrounding such attention has been more complex than that suggested by the boom. According to the June 2026 forecast from the International Cotton Advisory Committee, global cotton area will fall 1% to 30.1 million hectares and global production to drop 2% to 25.7 million tonnes during the 2026/27 season because of poor sentiment regarding demand, rising costs and 'strategic downsizing' in China where it is expected that inefficient, water stressed areas will be retired and high productivity areas planted instead. The cost of fertilizers have increased more than 12% in Q1 of 2026 because of tensions in the Middle East and the disruptions of global supply chains as a result of issues at the Hormuz Strait. The price of the Cotlook A index for the 2025/26 crop season from ICAC is forecasted to remain between 73 and 84 cents per pound, with an average of 78 cents per........

© AzerNews