Promotional Clothing – Cotton Prices

Promotional clothing such as corporate clothing and work uniforms prices will be affected by the soaring cotton prices recently. At the 2010 financial year, the price of cotton was US$0.75 per pound. However by mid November 2010, the price of cotton was $1.40. This is a whopping 86% increase in the price of cotton in five months causing work wear uniforms manufacturers and corporate clothing distributors to take a second look at their prices of cotton made clothing merchandise.

Promotional clothing such as cotton made corporate uniforms and work uniforms will further be affected by analysts’ predictions that this is just the first round of a price rise cycle with more to come in the future. According to Bill Nelson, an analyst for Doane Advisory Services in St. Louis, Missouri, “We haven’t reached the upper limit yet.” Despite this, China, the world’s number one consumer of cotton is scrambling to stock up on their cotton supplies.

So what has caused cotton prices to soar drastically in turn affecting cotton made promotional clothing prices? This is essentially due to demand for cotton outpacing supplies of cotton. Adverse weather in the world’s biggest countries of promotional apparel such as floods in Pakistan, India & China has reduced sizes of the cotton crops. Further, India, the world’s second-biggest cotton grower, stopped its export contracts after it filled its export quota with export contracts with Cargill Inc., Louis Dreyfus Commodities and other trading companies. (Source: www.bloomberg.com Leslie Patton Oct 12 2010)

Despite the rise in cotton prices, promotional clothing distributors such as PromosXchange have endeavoured to keep prices of cotton made corporate clothing and work uniforms stable together with competitive prices of their screen printing and embroidery services. However, you are likely to see increases in prices in the coming months if cotton prices remain on the increase. Don’t forget that there are also other fibres in promotional clothing you can switch to such as clothing made from synthetic fibres so there is no need to panic.