Informa expects 13pc drop in US cotton acres in 2015

Informa Economics forecast 2015 upland cotton acres in the United States at 9.38 million acres and total plantings of the fibre at 9.6 million acres, both down sharply from the prior year, according to the firm's Friday report seen by Reuters. The total cotton estimate was up from the group's prior projections, but down 13.1 percent from 2014, the report said.
The sharp year-over-year drop comes as farmers in the mid-South are expected to switch acres to soybeans instead of cotton, Informa said.
Benchmark cotton futures traded on ICE Futures US are down nearly 30 percent year-to-date.