Where Better Cotton is Grown

Displaying the 22 countries where over 2.13 million licensed Better Cotton Farmers are currently located and growing Better Cotton. Click on the country pins to learn more about each programme country.

Today Better Cotton is grown in 22 countries around the world and accounts for 22% of global cotton production.

In the 2022-23 cotton season, 2.13 million licensed Better Cotton Farmers grew 5.47 million tonnes of Better Cotton. However, these farmers are only part of the story. Over the last decade, nearly 4 million people around the world – farmers, farm workers, share croppers – have received training in more sustainable practices, reflecting the diversity of the cotton-growing, or ‘Farmer+’ community that we aim to reach.

A holistic global standard

Where Better Cotton grows is not only a matter of geography. In Australia, Brazil or the United States, a farm can be an industrial operation. In parts of Africa, India or Pakistan it can be a tiny smallholder working on less than 20 hectares of land. What matters is that as a holistic global standard, wherever Better Cotton is grown, it satisfies the environmental, economic and social criteria that we have set, so that it can be called Better Cotton. For the same reason, we also recognise equivalent standards, successfully benchmarked against our own, in Australia, Brazil, Greece, Israel and several African countries.

Reach, scale and impact

With these standards in place, we try to reach as many farmers, workers and farming communities as possible. Our network of local partners put all their know-how and resources at the farmers’ and workers’ disposal. We aim to achieve scale as well as impact and promote Better Cotton production in as many places as possible.