Rainfall Adversely Affected the Aegean Region’s 2025/26 Cotton Harvest
Işınsu Kestelli, Chair of the Board of Directors of the İzmir Commodity Exchange, announced that the Aegean Region’s cotton harvest for the 2025/26 season was expected to be approximately 10–15% below the original forecast due to adverse weather conditions and heavy rainfall.
Işınsu Kestelli said, “As you know, the İzmir Commodity Exchange coordinates the work to determine the area planted with cotton in the Aegean Region and estimate the size of the harvest. This work is carried out in cooperation with the İzmir Chamber of Commerce, the Aegean Exporters’ Associations, the Manisa Commodity Exchange, the Aydın Commodity Exchange, the Söke Commodity Exchange, and the Tariş Union of Agricultural Sales Cooperatives for Cotton and Oilseeds, under an agreement with the Department of Soil Science at Ege University’s Faculty of Agriculture. Based on this work, the Aegean Region’s cotton harvest for the 2025/26 season was forecast at 160,000 tonnes at a meeting held on 8 October 2025 with the İzmir Commodity Exchange and its partner institutions. Heavy rainfall across the region after the forecast was announced significantly disrupted harvesting. In November, specialist teams carried out further fieldwork across the Aegean Region to assess the impact of the extreme weather.”
Reporting on the latest fieldwork and its findings, Kestelli said, “Field inspections and consultations with growers, cotton ginning businesses, and industry stakeholders across the region found that rainfall during the harvest period reduced yields and quality. Only 15% of the cotton crop had been harvested before the rains, and the remaining 85% was adversely affected. Heavy rainfall increased soil moisture and made field conditions unsuitable for harvesting. As a result, bolls on the lower parts of the plants could not be picked, reducing yields.”
Kestelli added that the boll-opening treatments applied before the rains had lost their effectiveness and that unopened bolls had further reduced yields. “Cotton picked immediately after the rains was of lower quality, and storage problems at facilities affected by rainwater led to further losses. Based on all our findings, we expect the Aegean Region’s cotton harvest for the 2025/26 season to be approximately 10–15% below the previously announced forecast. The extent of the losses varies by location depending on how much rain fell,” she said.
