Australia's cotton harvest has kicked off, with the industry working to shore up alternative export markets two-and-half years on from the China trade ban.
Currently, cotton grown in Australia is sent overseas to 15 different countries for processing including Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and India.
Previously, China had been the biggest market.
But after the 2020 fall out with China when Australian exporters were slapped with tariffs, the Australian industry began working to build stronger relationships with other countries.
Now, cotton merchants are looking to the Vietnamese textile industry to futureproof the trade.
With 39 per cent of the national crop, Vietnam is Australia's largest trading partner.
The Australian Cotton Shippers Association (ACSA) represents cotton merchants and recently sent a delegation to Vietnam and Thailand.
"The point of going over there is to promote Australian cotton, our attributes, our ability to ship and ship quickly," ACSA chairman Matthew Bradd said.
Promoting Australian cotton
Australia's proximity to Asian markets gives it a competitive edge over other top cotton exporters such as the United States and Brazil.
"You can ship to Vietnam in about 21 days, whereas the US and Brazil are further away," Mr Bradd said.
The ACSA is exploring options to promote Australian cotton in different ways including showcasing clothes made from Australian cotton in Vietnam International Fashion Week.
Mr Bradd said they were working with Vietnamese spinners to get the most out of spinning and dyeing Australian cotton fibre.
He said Australia's cotton was mostly irrigated, which made the fibre more consistent for processing.
"Spinning mills find Australian cotton more efficient to put through the spinning process," Mr Bradd said.
"[They] will get more output from using Australian cotton."
Wet start to season
This year, Central Queensland is the first to harvest, with cotton pickers starting up in irrigated paddocks across the region.
Cotton Info extension officer Kim Stevens said rain earlier this year had caused issues with fruit losses so growers were waiting for the cotton to produce more before picking.
This had delayed the harvest.
"Where it usually would be pretty flat-out with picking, we're only seeing a small amount of pickers starting up in the past couple of weeks," Ms Stevens said.
"It probably won't be really busy picking up until probably May or June."
Even with wet weather causing issues, another bumper crop is forecast.
Cotton Australia chief executive Adam Kay said about 5.2 million bales were expected to be produced this season.
"There are some magnificent dryland or rain-grown crops, and there are some that are really struggling," he said.
"An inch or two inches of rain at the moment could really see that dryland crop explode."
Last year, Australian growers produced a national record of 5.5 million bales.
To put that in perspective, fewer than 590,000 bales were grown across the country in the 2020 season of drought.
Diversification of market
Under a recently brokered free trade agreement Australia can send duty free cotton to India.
Despite India being the world's second-largest producer of cotton, the South Asian country is Australia's third-largest export destination, with a current quota of 300,000 bales in place.
"We've considered them an opportunistic market. They've got their own crop there," Mr Bradd said.
"They're one of the world's largest growers of cotton [but] sometimes they will need to import.
"The Free Trade Agreement is good. It puts us ahead of other markets."
Mr Kay said losing China as a market forced the industry to rethink its strategy.
"China was 70 per cent, of our market. [The trade ban] showed that we weren't diversified enough," he said.
"Even if China comes back into the market, hopefully we can maintain all these markets.
"It's important to have those options."
However, losing China meant losing premium prices.
"We're seeing that sort of comeback a little bit now as these other mills and markets get to know Australian cotton and are willing to pay a little bit more for it," Mr Bradd said.
"But it's not quite where the Chinese were."
The cotton industry is structured in such a way that farmers sell it to merchants who then sell it onto spinning mills, which will look for the highest price.
That structure could result in China being a major export market again if the ban were lifted.
But Mr Bradd said there could still be opportunities to stay diversified.
"There might have been a shift in some of the supply chains with brands and retailers looking to diversify their supply chain out of China into other markets," he said.
"We've also got a lot of mills looking to buy just 100-per-cent Australian cotton, which is good."
"I think it won't go back to where it was."
