The latest U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cotton projections for 2007/08 indicate that the global cotton ending stocks ratio compared with use is expected to decline about 6 percentage points, from 2006/07's 46 percent to 2007/08's 40 percent.
If China's stocks are excluded from the world total, the decline is about 4 percentage points, from 34 percent to 30 percent. For 2007/08, USDA is forecasting the lowest level of stocks relative to use in at least a decade.
The decline in the 2007/08 global ending stocks-to-use ratio is in large part attributable to the United States. U.S. ending stocks rose sharply in 2006/07, giving the United States its largest global share of stocks since the mid- to late-1980s. Two-thirds of 2007/08's global 5.2-million-bale decline in stocks is expected to occur in the United States.
United States Department of Agriculture
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