America grows the world's finest Pima, ships almost all of it overseas unspun, then buys it back as finished yarn. The fiber is ours. The value isn't.
Premium American fiber, grown at home — and the value-add exported on nearly every pound.
The overwhelming majority of premium US Pima leaves the country unspun — surrendering the most valuable step.
Foreign spinning value-add that exits the US economy on every pound of 30/1 Pima ring-spun yarn.
The distance cotton travels to be spun abroad and shipped back — cost, carbon, and weeks of delay.
Four steps turn an American asset into an import. The most profitable one happens on the other side of the ocean.
The world's finest extra-long-staple cotton, grown on American soil.
100% AmericanNearly all of it is baled and exported to Asian mills as a raw commodity.
87% leavesForeign spindles add the value — and capture the profit that could be American.
+$1.76 / lb abroadThe finished yarn comes home at a far higher price — after a 2,900-mile round trip.
Higher cost, weeks lateAmerican fiber goes out raw and comes back finished — the value is added everywhere except home.
The four steps above, traced across the Pacific: American fiber warehoused in Bakersfield, shipped abroad to spin in Vietnam, India, and Guatemala — and the Yuma hub that closes the loop.
The raw fiber is always American. The question is where the spinning value-add is captured — and today the answer is: not here.
Every pound spun overseas exports $1.76 of value-add that a domestic ring-spinning hub would keep in American hands — multiplied across millions of pounds a year.
U.S. cotton farmers face unprecedented financial strain just as Yuma faces extreme structural unemployment. A farmer needs a buyer; a distressed region needs an industry.
Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies rose 46% across full-year 2025 (AFBF) — with first-half filings up even more sharply, ~57–70% over the prior year.
The suicide rate among agricultural workers runs roughly three times the national average.
Rise in farm input costs over five years — row crops unprofitable since at least 2022.
August 2025 — with a labor-force participation rate near 52%, far below the U.S. average.
| Metric | Data point | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Cotton futures price | 63.14¢/lb (Nov 12, 2025) | Down 8.24% year-over-year; forecast to fall further to ~58.98¢/lb within 12 months. |
| Global supply glut | +392,000 tonnes | Production surpasses consumption for 2024–25, driving downward price pressure and inventory build-up. |
| Input cost increase | >30% over 5 years | Inflation, rising interest rates, and supply-chain disruption — major row crops unprofitable since 2022. |
| Farm bankruptcies | +46% (2025) | Chapter 12 filings, full-year 2025 vs. 2024 (American Farm Bureau Federation). First-half filings rose even faster — ~70% in Q1; CBS News reported +57% for the first six months. |
| Exported U.S. fiber | 87% | Most U.S. cotton fiber is exported because there is no domestic spinning capacity for premium yarn such as Supima. |
Fifth-generation cotton and soybean farmers in Tennessee and Missouri describe the same forces behind this initiative: crops unprofitable since 2022, input costs up 30%+ in five years, a 57% rise in farm bankruptcies in the first half of 2025, and an agricultural suicide rate three times the national average.
Sources: documentary footage (YouTube, 2025) corroborating Yu-Pima Cotton Initiative proposal figures; farm bankruptcy data per American Farm Bureau Federation (full-year 2025); cotton futures per Trading Economics / USDA, Nov 2025.
The crisis isn't an accident of the market — it's the result of choices about what America chose to build, and what it let go.
America offloaded its spinning capacity — the mills, the machines, the know-how. We still grow the world's finest fiber, but can no longer turn most of it into quality yarn at scale.
For three decades the country poured capital into weapons and technology — but not the industrial backbone that turns cotton into value. So our farmers export almost all of their fiber, raw.
The price of American cotton is dictated by foreign buyers and overseas mills — not by the farmers who actually grow it.
A domestic ring-spinning hub in Yuma, Arizona closes the loop — and keeps the value on American soil.