Sep 21, 2026
Cotton Could Gain Ground on Safrinha Corn
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
Corn and cotton compete for the same second-crop acreage in Mato Grosso. In 2025/26, cotton crop in Mato Grosso lost acreage to corn due to low fiber prices and greater attractiveness and liquidity of corn as a second crop. Profitability projections for 2026/27 favor cotton cultivation, but recovery of cotton acreage will depend on the planting window left by soybeans.
The safrinha corn acreage in Mato Grosso in 2025/26 was 7.54 million hectares, which was up 33,000 hectares from the previous year. In comparison, cotton acreage in Mato Grosso in 2025/26 was 1.38 million hectares, which was down 76,000 hectares from the prior year.
In 2025/26, overall cotton acreage in Brazil declined by 6.3% to 2.07 million hectares. Even so, high productivity offset the lower acreage and led to increased production compared to the previous year. The strong performance of last year's crop coupled with improved prices and the prospect of smaller cotton crops in the United States, Australia, China, and India, has led Brazilian farmers to be more optimistic concerning their 2026/27 cotton production.
If the planting window is advantageous for safrinha cotton in Mato Grosso, farmeres in the state could switch back as much as 100-150,000 hectares from corn to cotton, but that will depend on the planting window left by soybeans. The ideal planting window for safrinha cotton in Mato Grosso, which is the largest cotton producing state in Brazil, is from late December to late January. For safrinha corn in the state, the ideal planting window closes about the third week of February.