Azerbaijan is on the verge of realising the biggest cotton harvest since the country gained its independence. This represents a kind of breakthrough within the agricultural sector and further enhances the position of the country within the global cotton industry. Cotton production begins to take on the sense of an important agricultural crop for Azerbaijan again. Almost complete harvests of the 2025 harvest suggest a revival of the industry after a few years of shrinkage.

According to a statement made by Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Agriculture by early December, 353,914 tons of raw cotton were gathered from 100,468.1 hectares of agricultural land, and this year's crop average of 35.23 centners of cotton per hectare is a record high in Azerbaijan after independence.

In US dollar value, the amount of raw cotton is measured in tens of millions of agricultural products, thus accentuating the significance of cotton beyond its simple nominal value of export.

This increase has come against the background of various harvest decreases experienced in previous years. To give a proper comparison, Azerbaijan harvested just over 307,000 tons in 2024, while in 2023, harvests decreased to 276,300 tons. This shows that in 2022 and 2020, harvests stood at approximately 323,000 and 337,000 tons, respectively, making 2025’s harvest a definitive turnaround in renewed focus on this sector.

Cotton farming has been conducted in 16 areas during the 2025 economic year, with the largest area of agricultural land allocated towards cotton farming in nine traditional cotton-growing districts: Aghjabedi, Beylagan, Barda,........

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