Cotton industry rebounds as harvest starts on potential $1.5 billion crop, but China still not buying

Australia’s cotton harvest is getting underway and early estimates suggest the crop will be four times larger than last year’s and worth about $1.5 billion.

If it all comes to fruition, it will be a noticeable comeback for the industry, which has struggled through years of drought and had one of its smallest crops on record in 2020.

“It was a lean year last year with only 600,000 bales, the smallest crop in 40 years,” Cotton Australia chief executive…