Australian Cotton Report Uncovers Stories of Giving

In a cotton industry first, a snapshot report outlining Australian cotton’s significant social and economiccontribution was released today.

The report, titled “Cotton with a Conscience” pulled together industry data and case studies from acrossAustralia’s cotton growing regions, with the results highlighting an industry committed to the communities inwhich it operates.

The report found that not only did the Australian cotton industry directly employ 12,500 people mostly on familyfarms in rural areas, it contributed on average $1.8 billion a year to the national economy and was a major socialcontributor to regional communities.

The industry was found to be a strong supporter of women, who were well represented on -farm and in jobs suchas ginning, agronomy, research and marketing. The proportion of women working in key industry organisationswas 60%.

Cotton farmers made the vast majority of their business expenses (93%) in rural towns and regional centres.

and 71% made regular donations to local charities and programs.

“As anyone who’s lived in a rural town knows, so much of their vibrancy comes from the people who volunteertheir time and resources to make things happen,” Cotton Australia spokesperson Brooke Summers said.

“While this report really just scratches the surface, it is full of examples of how our farmers and industry groupsare contributing to the social fabric of rural communities across NSW and Queensland,” M s Summers said.

The Cotton with a Conscience report included 25 case study examples of how the cotton industry was givingback, from donating cotton towels to WIRES during the recent bushfires and releasing more than 200,000 babyfish into rivers, to tack ling issues like Aboriginal employment and rural mental health.

“For many years, the Australian cotton industry has worked hard to assess and report our environmentalsustainability, but on the social side, there’s a great untold story,” Ms Summers said.

“We’ve discovered our stakeholders are equally interested in the social contributions of our industry, particularlyas there are some big challenges globally around cotton, including child labour and the exploitation of womenin some countries.

“It’s imp ortant that our supply chain partners, and consumers of Australian cotton know our domestic industrytreats its workers fairly, provides safe workplaces and opportunities, and is doing its best to contribute in apositive way to cotton communities.

“We ha ven’t been very good at telling the stories of cotton’s social contributions, even though our farmers.

local Cotton Grower Associations and industry groups have been doing great things for decades,” MsSummers said.

This report is just the beginning.

Cot ton Australia and the Cotton Research and Development Corporation are currently working on establishingindustry -wide social targets and a follow -up piece of research that will provide further evidence and hard dataaround cotton’s social and economic cont ributions.

Headline take -outs of the Cotton with a Conscience report.

• Australia’s cotton farmers produce enough cotton to clothe 375 million people each year.

• Cotton growers contribute to the economic viability of their communities and reported spending 9 3% oftheir business expenses in the local area and/or nearest regional centre.

• 90% of cotton growers are involved in at least once community -based activity, with six -in-10 involved insome way on a monthly basis.

• The prop ortion of women working in key ind ustry organisations is 60%.

• The averag e annual gross value of seed and lint productio n between 2014 -2019 was $1.8 billion.

• 90% of Australia’s cotton farms are family -owned and operated.

• In non -drought years, the cotton industry directly employs 12,500 people not including those employedin agronomy, rural supplies or inputs.

View the “Cotton with a Conscience” report here.

/Public Release. View in full here.