Exploring the Threats and Opportunities for Cotton in the Chinese Apparel Market

China is one of the fastest growing apparel markets in the world, representing an opportunity to increase end-use cotton consumption.  However, there is limited research available on cotton’s presence in Chinese consumers’ apparel purchases.  The purpose of this paper is to identify the opportunities and challenges for cotton in the rapidly growing Chinese apparel market.  This paper will utilize Cotton Council International and Cotton Incorporated’s proprietary Chinese consumer research to (1) establish cotton’s presence in Chinese consumers’ apparel purchases by product category, (2) investigate differences in cotton’s presence in apparel purchases over time by demographic variables like gender, age, income, and city-tier, and (3) highlight challenges and opportunities to increase cotton’s presence in Chinese apparel consumption.  Results from this paper will give the industry insight into what issues could possibly threaten or increase end-use cotton consumption in China.