"Terrifying" cotton prices send clothing prices soaring 30% for retailers

It's beginning to look a lot like inflation...everwhere you go...

Sure, asset prices are declining or lackluster, but the consumer is about to get a nasty kick right where it hurts. Personally I see this not only as a result of quantitative sleazing but also of the fact that it's been a bad farming year for almost every crop globally, including cotton. There were a ton of overly optimistic massaged stats from the USDA and others earlier in the year (lotta that going around these days), but the erratic summer weather played havoc with the best laid plans of mice and men. Toss in the the distortions from the funhouse derivative freakshow that passes for a commodities market these days and you've got yourself a recipe for ugly surprises.

"Terrifying" cotton prices are coming to a store near you

Gap Inc., J.C. Penney Co., and other U.S. retailers may have to pay Chinese suppliers as much as 30 percent more for clothes as surging cotton prices boost costs.

"It's a little terrifying to deal with cotton suppliers now," said Vicky Wu, a sales manager at Suzhou Unitedtex Enterprise Ltd., a closely held, Jiangsu province-based clothes maker that counts Gap and J.C. Penney among its clients.

Cotton futures in China have surged more than 70 percent this year and were at a record earlier as the global economy emerged from recession, allowing people to spend more on clothes. Production of the fiber in China, the world's biggest user and importer, is forecast to lag behind demand for a 12th year, cutting its stockpile to the smallest since 1995, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"American consumers better get used to rising prices on the shelves of Wal-Mart and other retailers," said Jessica Lo, Shanghai-based managing director at China Market Research Group. "China's manufacturers are getting squeezed not only by rising cotton costs but also soaring real estate and labor costs."

More at source:
www.thedailycrux.com...

Not only weather I'm afraid. Also usage of GM technologies prove itself as extremely hazardous. Just too examples:

Resistance evolves after a weed population has been subjected to intense selection pressure in the form of repeated use of a single herbicide.[67][68] These weeds resistant to the herbicide have been called "Superweeds".[69][70] In the US 7 to 10 million acres (40,000 km2) of soil is afflicted by those superweeds.[71] The first documented cases of weed resistance to glyphosate were found in Australia, involving rigid ryegrass near Orange, New South Wales.[72] Some farmers in the United States have expressed concern that weeds are now developing with glyphosate resistance, with 13 states now reporting resistance, and this poses a problem to many farmers, including cotton farmers, that are now heavily dependent on glyphosate to control weeds.[73][74] Farmers associations are now reporting 103 biotypes of weeds within 63 weed species with herbicide resistance.[73][74] This problem is likely to be exacerbated by the use of Roundup Ready crops.[75] Fifteen weed species have been confirmed as resistant to glyphosate.[67]

Wikipedia

Within a week, two farmers in neighbouring villages in Wardha district killed themselves. Their Bt cotton crops were devastated by lalya, a disease that caused the cotton plants to redden and wilt [5]. [...] Agricultural scientists said lalya points to a lack of micronutrients and moisture content in the soil. Lalya develops with pest attacks, moisture stress and lack of micronutrients in the soil. The plant’s chlorophyll decreases with nitrogen deficiency, resulting in another pigment, anthocyanin, which turns the foliage red. If reddening starts before boll formation, it results in a 25 percent drop in yield, said a scientist from the Central Institute of Cotton Research at Nagpur, who wished to remain anonymous. “Lalya is here to stay.” He declared. According to the agricultural scientists, the disease has its roots in the American Bt technology that India imported. Almost all of the 500-plus Bt seed varieties sold in India in 2009 are of the same parentage, the American variety Coker312 Bt cotton, a top CICR scientist said. They are F1 hybrids, crossed with Indian varieties. Coker-312 (initially from Monsanto) showed high susceptibility to attacks by sucking pests like jassids and thrips. The thrips disperse within plant cells, while jassids suck the sap as they multiply under a leaf’s surface, forcing the plant to draw more nutrients from the soil, aggravating the soil’s nutritional deficiency. Another characteristic of Bt cotton that depletes the soil is that the bolls come to fruition simultaneously, draining the soil all at once. In a region like Vidarbha, plants wilt in two or three days. “It is like drawing blood from anemic woman.”

Source ...

reply to post by silent thunder


"American consumers better get used to rising prices on the shelves of Wal-Mart and other retailers,"

Indeed.

Hyper-inflation will eventually lead to a total collapse of the dollar.

Wal-Mart is about to become the new Neiman Marcus.

Very true! Hyperinflation isnt far fetched. Gravity always wins! The DOW is going bonkers again and I expect to come out of the eye of this storm by the end of the fiscal quarter. Hopefully not a repeat of Sept.15th 2008.

Wow, hyper-inflation combined with the proposed federal sales tax might pretty much be either the final nail in the coffin of the middle class or the last straw for the coming riots/civil unrest/martial law. Either way, the NWO wins.

Remember the days when cotton was actually grown and spun in the US. I still have good memories of driving through the south just before cotton harvest time when the fields were a sea of white. Towns like Ft. Mill SC thrived on textiles. We still have McAddenville, NC and Pharr Yarns though.

www.mcadenville-christmastown.com...

Maybe now would be a good time to get into the cotton growing business? I'll bet there's some good farmland out there just laying dormant, 'dirt' cheap in this economic environment!!

Originally posted by westcoast
Maybe now would be a good time to get into the cotton growing business? I'll bet there's some good farmland out there just laying dormant, 'dirt' cheap in this economic environment!!

An interesting idea, yet I wonder how feasible it really is? Would growers be able to stay in business? Were I to undertake such a venture, there is no way I would use Monsanto's BT cotton. Ultimately though, it would be likely that my crops would be polluted by cross pollination and Monsanto would come after me for patent violations. Dear heavens the SCOTUS ruling that allowed that corperation to actually hold patents on life has to rank up there amongst the worst rulings of all time.

They want to be greedy, we'll just shop in second hand stores. We live in a throw-away society where people get rid of things when they are still like new anyway. Then there are yard sales and flea markets.

The price of cotton has not gone up.

The value of your money has gone down.

There is no shortage of cotton at all.

Maby hemp will make a comeback... You used to be able to walk into town and pay your taxes with Hemp anytime pre 1917 because it was so usefull. Then they realised it was to easy to produce and far to usefull. It was killing the cotton trade that was booming at the time. People could grow it anywhere and use it make their own clothes. They could self medicate for pain relief and many other cures but the pharmas didnt like that.. They could smoke something that wasnt grown with radioactive fertalizer but the tobacco companys didnt like that. So they decided we couldnt grow it anymore.

This story doesn't pass the sniff test for me. Where i live we have two industries: oil and cotton. This year our crops were fairly solid, and most farmers were already contracted for this years crop. The price of cotton was basically already set this year over the previous few years when crops were contracted to buyers.

There is no increase in the price our farmers are getting per bail. Some who are already negotiating the next contracts are being advised to seek a 5-7% increase. Just slightly over the standard 3%.

Either someone is getting gouged further up the chain because of the lowered production of cotton in Africa (which i don't buy, because the US has been the ones suppressing cotton value with farm subsidies), or this article is a bit of fear mongering.

Otherwise, I need to let the locals know that they need to stick it to the buyers. Because they aren't seeing it.

Anyone remember the '70s stagflation? Cotton went up then too.

Polyester is coming back!!!

reply to post by silent thunder


there are other fibers than cotton you know. I think this is their way to cover up inflation. Have you actually seen the blighted cotton fields? Me neither ergo I don't trust it. .