ABSTRACT
Cotton is the most important natural vegetable textile fiber used in the world for spinning to
produce apparel, home furnishings, and industrial products [614,615]. It continues to be one
of the most dominant textile fibers in much of the world and accounted for over 38% of the
worldwide textile fiber consumption in 2005 [1] (see Table 9.1). China, India, Pakistan,
Turkey, the United States, and Brazil are the major cotton-consuming countries [40,614]
(see Table 9.2). Consumption is measured by the amount of raw cotton fiber, the textile mills
purchase and use to manufacture textile materials. China, the United States, India, Pakistan,
Uzbekistan, Turkey, and Brazil are the major cotton producing countries, accounting for
over 81% of world cotton production in 2004 [40,614] (Table 9.3). Organic cotton, which is a
very small niche market, was produced in at least 16 countries in 2003, with Turkey as the
leading producer (Table 9.4).
