Cotton is grown in more than 249 Australian communities. Major cotton production areas include the Central Highlands, Darling Downs, Border Rivers, St George, Mungindi and Dirranbandi regions of Queensland, and the Gwydir, Namoi, Macquarie, Murrumbidgee, Murray and Lachlan valleys of New South Wales.

Smaller amounts of cotton is grown in northern Victoria, in northern Queensland, northern Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

There are up to 1,500 cotton farms in Australia, growing some of the finest quality and highest yielding cotton in the world. The number of farms growing cotton fluctuates each year depending on water availability and farmers choosing whether to grow the crop.

Cotton is grown in more than 70 countries around the world, many of which are newly industrialising countries. It is estimated that there are 100 million cotton producers globally, with China, USA, India, Pakistan and Brazil the world’s biggest producing nations.

Australia is a relatively minor producer on the world scale, but is the world’s third-to-sixth largest exporter depending on the season.