In 2025, China's cotton sector delivered impressive results. Data recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2025, the national cotton planting area reached 44.687 million mu (approximately 2.98 million hectares), an increase of 2.113 million mu (approximately 147,000 hectares) or 5.0% compared to the previous year. Yield per unit area rose to 148.6 kilograms per mu (approximately 1.58 kilograms per square meter), marking a 2.6% increase. National cotton production totaled 6.641 million metric tons, up by 477,000 metric tons or 7.7% from 2024.

Wang Jianhong, President of the China Cotton Association, stated that the favorable trend of “dual growth” in both area and yield within the cotton industry resulted from the combined effect of multiple factors, signaling that the industry has reached a new development milestone.

Cotton industry policies serve as a crucial means to support industry development. The Xinjiang cotton target price reform pilot program, approved by the State Council in 2014, has undergone continuous refinement over more than a decade of implementation. Wang Jianhong explained that this policy has ensured basic profitability for cotton cultivation. Particularly in the past three years, amid significant yield fluctuations in other crops like tomatoes, wheat, and corn in Xinjiang, cotton's comparative advantage in profitability has become more pronounced, leading to a sustained increase in Xinjiang's cotton planting area. In 2025, Xinjiang's cotton planting area continued to show modest growth, with generally favorable weather conditions during the growing season. As a result, Xinjiang's cotton yield per unit area and total production both reached new historical highs.

“Our farm area in Xinjiang remains stable, with the company focusing its core efforts on new variety breeding and enhancing farm planting techniques for greater efficiency,” stated Hebei Guoxin Pure Cotton Home Textiles Co., Ltd. The company's farms extensively apply the “dry sowing, wet emergence” planting technique and conduct trials and R&D on herbicide-tolerant varieties. This approach stabilizes acreage while reducing production costs and improving output quality. Benefiting from the national stable target price policy and smooth procurement channels, the farm's cotton sales price met expectations in 2025, securing planting profits with a yield of CNY400 per mu (approximately 0.067 acres).

Quality-oriented incentive policies have driven gradual improvements in Xinjiang cotton quality. The cotton quality traceability subsidy policy implemented in Xinjiang since 2021 directly distributes subsidies to high-quality cotton producers through a “premium for quality” mechanism. By 2024, Xinjiang cotton quality showed significant improvement compared to 2019: fiber length increased by 0.4 mm, strength indicators (proportion meeting high-grade breaking strength) rose by 49.4 percentage points, and maturity/fineness indicators (proportion of A+B micronaire values) improved by 9.5 percentage points, markedly enhancing cotton spinnability.

Currently, Xinjiang accounts for over 90% of China's total cotton output. Wang Jianhong explained that to restore cotton acreage in inland regions, the National Cotton Exchange is collaborating with supply and marketing cooperatives in Gansu and Hunan provinces, along with local cotton enterprises, to actively promote pilot programs for “specialized warehouse supervision + in-warehouse notarial inspection” for inland cotton. These efforts have yielded results in reviving local cotton production and circulation. Hubei Province has continuously advanced its demonstration and promotion project for machine-harvested cotton in inland areas, expanding the pilot area from 200 mu to 5,000 mu, thereby gaining valuable experience in moderately restoring cotton cultivation scale in inland regions.

Innovative financial services provide enhanced support and safeguards for cotton cultivation. Financial products like the “Cotton e-Loan” launched by the National Cotton Exchange, a subsidiary of China National Supply and Marketing Cooperative Group, leverage a “data + technology + finance” model. This converts cotton farmers' planting and sales data on the platform into credit assets, enabling online, convenient low-interest loan services. By 2025, the total loan disbursement of “Cotton e-Loan” exceeded 30 billion yuan. Since its launch in late 2021, it has cumulatively served over 200,000 cotton farmers, with an annualized interest rate as low as 2.40%.

A representative from the National Cotton Trading Market stated that calculations show this initiative saves cotton farmers an average of 30 to 50 yuan in interest expenses per mu (approximately 0.067 acres) compared to traditional offline loans. This significantly alleviates the challenges of “difficult and expensive financing,” enabling farmers to allocate more funds toward technological upgrades and precision management. It supports cost reduction and efficiency gains across Xinjiang's approximately 20 million mu of cotton fields.

Challenges facing the cotton industry remain significant. Wang Jianhong noted that China currently faces insufficient supply of high-quality cotton, with certain indicators still lagging behind international premium cotton standards, making it difficult to fully meet the demands of the textile industry's transformation and upgrading. Issues such as excessive variety complexity in production and grade mixing during procurement hinder the full effectiveness of the premium-quality-premium-price mechanism. Meanwhile, despite financial support alleviating funding pressures, comprehensive production costs have risen annually. Combined with insufficient independent innovation capabilities in areas like variety breeding and high-end equipment, this has somewhat impacted the overall competitiveness of the industrial chain.

Transitioning the industry toward quality-driven, efficiency-oriented, and green sustainable development has become an industry consensus. In 2021, the China Cotton Association spearheaded a collaborative effort with four major industry associations to advance the China Cotton Sustainable Development Project. By 2025, the project achieved certification for 1.22 million mu (approximately 81,333 hectares) of cotton fields at the production end. On the supply chain side, it implemented sustainable cotton initiatives to empower Xinjiang's premium cotton, with 220 Xinjiang cotton processing enterprises qualifying for the use of the premium “Sustainable Cotton” trademark. A total of 13,000 certificates were issued, covering 570,000 tons of lint cotton.

Wang Jianhong stated that moving forward, the association plans to expand the scale of demonstration cotton fields, revise and promote sustainable production standards, and explore certification models tailored to Xinjiang cotton. Concurrently, it will deepen cooperation with supply chains, brands, and retail channels to implement preferential policies for “Sustainable Cotton,” unlock its market value and premium potential, and ultimately enhance consumer recognition of domestically produced sustainable cotton products.

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