# Cotton Highlights from August WASDE Report

Author: Jim Steadman
Published: 2019-08-12
Canonical URL: https://www.cottongrower.com/market-analysis/production-outlook-acreage/cotton-highlights-from-august-wasde-report-4/

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The [August 2019 World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report](https://downloads.usda.library.cornell.edu/usda-esmis/files/3t945q76s/sf268h73q/0p096k137/latest.pdf) has been released by USDA. Here’s this month’s summary for cotton, based on the first survey-based production forecast of the season by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS):

**This month’s 2019/20 U.S. cotton outlook includes higher beginning stocks, production, exports and ending stocks. Production for the 2019 crop is raised 2% to 22.5 million bales on NASS’s first survey-based production forecast. The survey indicates slightly higher area and yield compared with last month’s expectations, resulting in the largest crop in 14 years.**

**Beginning stocks are raised 250,000 bales due to lower-than-expected 2018/19 exports. Exports for 2019/20 are raised 200,000 bales this month, and ending stocks are raised 500,000 bales to 7.2 million. The 2019/20 season-average price for upland cotton is forecast at 60 cents per pound, down 3 cents from last month.**

**Lower projected world cotton consumption largely accounts for a 2.0-million-bale increase in 2019/20 global ending stocks from the July forecast. Beginning stocks are higher, largely due to a 500,000-bale decline in 2018/19 consumption. Production in 2019/20 is forecast 200,000 bales lower this month, but higher beginning stocks and a 1.2-million-bale decline in projected consumption are more than offsetting. Consumption is lower in China, India and Uzbekistan.**