Extreme weather is wreaking havoc upon most of the world’s largest cotton suppliers.
In India, the leading producer, heavy rains and pests have cut into cotton crops so much that the nation is importing supplies.
A heatwave in China is raising concerns about the coming harvest there. In the US, the largest exporter of the commodity, a worsening drought is ravaging farms and is set to drag production to the lowest level in more than a decade.
And now Brazil, the second-largest exporter, is battling extreme heat and drought that have cut yields by nearly 30 per cent.
This confluence of extreme weather events brought on by climate change has sent cotton prices soaring by as much as 30 per cent.
Earlier this year, they touched the highest level since 2011, squeezed the margins of clothing suppliers and threatened to raise the costs of everything from T-shirts, to nappies, to paper and cardboard.
In a call with investors last week, Children’s Place chief executive Jane Elfers described the surge in cotton prices as “a huge, huge problem for us” and said the company was hoping for some relief in the second half of the year.
The outlook for Brazil is anything but helpful. The drought there has so far dried up an estimated 200,000 metric tonnes of supply, according to Abrapa, a group representing growers.
With the nation’s 2021-2022 harvest close to complete, production is now estimated at 2.6 million tonnes or less.
Bom Futuro group, one of Brazil’s largest cotton producers accounting for about 10 per cent of the nation’s planted area, said yields fell 27 per cent compared with the previous season.
Julio Busato, a grower in Sao Desiderio, Bahia state, has suffered from a similar decline. Dryness is reducing the number of cotton bolls, making them lighter across all of the country’s main growing regions, he said.
Meanwhile, US output is set to plunge 28 per cent in the season that began this month.
The US expects production to hit the lowest level since the 2009-2010 season, sending stockpiles to near-historic lows, because of a drought that has become so extreme that the US government is rationing water from the Colorado River.
Together, the US and Brazil account for half of the world’s cotton exports.
The decline in global supplies has become so steep that it is overshadowing demand problems.
The US government and analysts have been projecting a drop in demand because of a fall in clothing purchases and slowing economies, especially in Europe and Asia.
And yet all signs point to “much higher” cotton prices in the coming months with crops shrinking, said Andy Ryan, senior relationship manager for Hedgepoint Global Markets in Nashville, Tennessee.
Mr Busato, who also serves as the head of Abrapa, sold 75 per cent of what he expected to harvest in advance and ended up largely missing out on the big surge in prices.
Because of the weather, he only produced enough to meet his existing contractual obligations.
“I could have made a mountain of money,” he said.
The weather has created a secondary headache for the cotton buyers of the world.
Untimely rains in regions including Australia, Pakistan and even Brazil have also diminished the quality of the stock, said Peter Egli, director for Plexus Cotton.
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
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Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
The bio
Favourite book: Peter Rabbit. I used to read it to my three children and still read it myself. If I am feeling down it brings back good memories.
Best thing about your job: Getting to help people. My mum always told me never to pass up an opportunity to do a good deed.
Best part of life in the UAE: The weather. The constant sunshine is amazing and there is always something to do, you have so many options when it comes to how to spend your day.
Favourite holiday destination: Malaysia. I went there for my honeymoon and ended up volunteering to teach local children for a few hours each day. It is such a special place and I plan to retire there one day.
The drill
Recharge as needed, says Mat Dryden: “We try to make it a rule that every two to three months, even if it’s for four days, we get away, get some time together, recharge, refresh.” The couple take an hour a day to check into their businesses and that’s it.
Stick to the schedule, says Mike Addo: “We have an entire wall known as ‘The Lab,’ covered with colour-coded Post-it notes dedicated to our joint weekly planner, content board, marketing strategy, trends, ideas and upcoming meetings.”
Be a team, suggests Addo: “When training together, you have to trust in each other’s abilities. Otherwise working out together very quickly becomes one person training the other.”
Pull your weight, says Thuymi Do: “To do what we do, there definitely can be no lazy member of the team.”
SECRET%20INVASION
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Most F1 world titles
7 — Michael Schumacher (1994, ’95, 2000, ’01 ’02, ’03, ’04)
7 — Lewis Hamilton (2008, ’14,’15, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’20)
5 — Juan Manuel Fangio (1951, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57)
4 — Alain Prost (1985, ’86, ’89, ’93)
4 — Sebastian Vettel (2010, ’11, ’12, ’13)
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
WISH
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2.0
Director: S Shankar
Producer: Lyca Productions; presented by Dharma Films
Cast: Rajnikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Sudhanshu Pandey
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 6 (McTominay 2', 3'; Fernandes 20', 70' pen; Lindelof 37'; James 65')
Leeds United 2 (Cooper 41'; Dallas 73')
Man of the match: Scott McTominay (Manchester United)
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