Measuring the Supply of Cotton Ginning Infrastructure in Louisiana

Louisiana cotton production has declined in recent years from 870,000 acres in 2001 to 230,000 acres in 2009. Associated with this decline in acreage has been an acceleration of gin closures in the state.  The number of active gins has declined from 55 in 2001 to an estimated 34 in 2009. In 2001, total cotton production was 1,034,000 bales or 18,800 bales per gin. Total Louisiana cotton production is an estimated 405,000 bales or about 11, 911 bales per gin. This decrease in volume per gin places additional economic pressure on gins as they struggle to maintain economic viability.  This has led to growing concerns about the future availability of cotton ginning infrastructure in Louisiana as well as other parts of the cotton belt.

 The objective of this paper is to present results of research conducted in Louisiana to measure the over- and under-supply of cotton ginning infrastructure. This is accomplished through an extensive geographic assessment of cotton ginning infrastructure relative to cotton production in Louisiana. Data obtained from the boll weevil eradication program provides field-level geographic location of cotton acreage. Parish level yields are used to generate production for the identified cotton fields. Gin locations and capacities are available from previous research. Ginning capacity is distributed first to the cotton acreage closest to the gin, and subsequently to the next closest until the capacity is exhausted. A comparison is made between the 2009 and 2006 seasons to evaluate differences between high and low years of production. This identifies how reduced ginning infrastructure capacity in 2009 would impact the ability of cotton producers to find an available ginner if cotton production returned to 2006 levels.