Supima cotton is in a transitional period as the harvest season comes to a close. The 2023-24 crop year has produced smaller yields of American-grown Pima cotton, and although it is still early to predict the next crop cycle, Supima’s president and CEO Marc Lewkowitz sees this trend extending to 2024 plantings.
Contributing to this decline is the nature of farming. Cotton growers also cultivate crops like corn and tomatoes, and they want to choose what will have the best return on investment. Pricing pressure and unfavorable weather have farmers making “severe decisions,” Lewkowitz explained during a recent fireside chat with Sarah Jones, senior editor, strategic content at Sourcing Journal. “While they love to grow cotton, it’s not a guarantee that they’ll plant it,” he said. “If there’s not a value that supports them, they won’t.”
Input costs for growers for everything from equipment to energy have escalated. Meanwhile, Supima’s sale price has come down from around $3.50 a pound in 2022, to about $2.35 a pound in the last few months. “Based on current supply and demand metrics, it looks like we are at a stable price point for the time being,” Lewkowitz noted.
At the consumer level, pandemic-era consumption boosts have subsided as people spread their spending across more than tangible goods, although comfy, quality knits remain a strong point. “Consumers can find their favorite T-shirt in their drawer, something that they like wearing that’s comfortable, breathable, durable and it looks the same wash after wash,” he said.
All levels of the supply chain as well as consumers want to know what is in their products, and Supima is building out transparency with the AQRe™ Project, a traceability platform that combines forensic testing from Oritain with TextileGenesis’ digital traceability. To keep expenses equitable, the cost of AQRe traceability—which includes the right to use the brand name—is situated at the point of yarn sale, spreading the fee across the rest of the downstream chain.
Just around half of all Pima cotton grown in the U.S. is destined for products that license the SUPIMA® brand, but already a quarter of the current crop year’s production has been uploaded to the AQRe™ Project platform since it launched in July. As more of the production transitions out of old contracts, adoption will increase to provide full visibility on every Supima cotton article. “For each and every product being made with Supima cotton in the future, you will be able to click on a product ID and have a full geographical map of the movement of the product and the source that it came from,” said Lewkowitz.
Watch the video for key takeaways about the Supima cotton market. And to learn more about Supima’s AQRe Project, download their whitepaper here.
