China's share of world cotton imports halved, to a fifth
Share of world raw cotton imports, yearly averages, USDA marketing years 2010/11–2012/13 vs 2022/23–2024/25.
- 1. Mexico, not China, now sells America the most goods
- 2. China's ASEAN trade is now almost double its US trade
- 3. America's duty-free parcels grew almost tenfold in nine years
- 4. Mexico's factories now outproduce Britain's and France's
- 5. The UAE sold more goods abroad than France in 2025
- 6. The EU now buys more US gas than Russian gas
- 7. Malaysia again sells more to America than to China
- 8. Brazil mines 93% of the world's niobium
- 9. More Vietnamese now work in industry than on farms
- 10. Indonesia set to use more palm oil than it exports
- 11. Factories now make more of Cambodia's economy than China's
- 12. China now buys more from Brazil than from Germany
- 13. Kazakhstan now sells Russia more than Germany does
- 14. China fell to third among America's suppliers in 2025
- 15. America overtook China as Taiwan's biggest export market
- 16. Mongolia's coal exports hit a record 90 million tonnes
- 17. Viet Nam's ports now handle more containers than Japan's
- 18. Liberia overtook Panama as the biggest flag by ship capacity
- 19. Nickel made Indonesia the world's fifth-biggest iron and steel exporter
- 20. Mexico again hosts more US investment than China
- 21. Mexico replaced China as America's top computer supplier
- 22. France fell from first to third among Côte d'Ivoire's suppliers
- 23. Wigs are nearly half of what North Korea sells China
- 24. Viet Nam overtook China as Morocco's top smartphone supplier
- 25. China became the top electric car supplier in 21 countries
- 26. Indonesia became America's biggest solar panel supplier
- 27. 21 countries now buy more from China than from Russia
- 28. China's share of world cotton imports halved, to a fifth
- 29. Morocco's container ports grew fastest of the world's top 40
- 30. China now supplies almost two-thirds of lithium-ion battery imports
China's share of world cotton imports in 2022/23–2024/25, down from 44.0% in 2010/11–2012/13.
Bangladesh's and Viet Nam's share together, up from 14.1%: they now buy about five bales for every three China buys.
Bales of cotton imported a year worldwide, about the same as the 43.1m of 2010/11–2012/13: the trade moved more than it grew.
the numbers & method
| China (m bales) | Bangladesh (m bales) | Viet Nam (m bales) | All others (m bales) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010/11–12/13 | 18.9 | 4.2 | 1.9 | 18.0 |
| 2022/23–24/25 | 8.8 | 7.5 | 7.0 | 18.2 |
Claim types Fact
USDA FAS PSD, Cotton, imports (1,000 480-lb bales), editions data as of 2025-12 (2010/11–2018/19) and 2026-10 (2019/20 on), US government work, read from USDA PSD via the progrss vault (loaded from apps.fas.usda.gov/psdonline). USDA local marketing years; three-year averages and shares, progrss calculation. World = sum of the 124 countries USDA reports (the EU, reported as one unit, is not in this extract). Thousand bales a year, 2010/11–2012/13 vs 2022/23–2024/25: world 43,053 vs 41,588; China 18,946 vs 8,796; Bangladesh 4,217 vs 7,542; Viet Nam 1,868 vs 7,012; all others 18,022 vs 18,239 (Pakistan 1,381 vs 4,600, Turkey 3,141 vs 4,071). China's single years swing widely: 32.9% in 2010/11, 54.1% in 2011/12 (state reserve buying), 42.9% in 2012/13; 16.5% in 2022/23, 34.0% in 2023/24, 12.1% in 2024/25; 2025/26 USDA estimate 16.1%, 2026/27 forecast 15.7%. China was below a quarter of world imports in 10 of the 12 years 2014/15–2025/26, all but 2020/21 (26.4%) and 2023/24 (34.0%); 2025/26 is a USDA estimate. Raw cotton only; yarn and fabric trade are not counted. Live re-read of the USDA PSD page was not possible in this run; vault rule GUIDELINES §4.11 applies.
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