Cotton prices hit 15-year highCommodity prices for cotton have hit a 15-year high, nearly doubling their price since this time last year.

The culprit is a worldwide cotton shortage that has made farmer's cotton, which is used in everything from clothing to hygiene products, an expensive and sought-after commodity. Commodity markets show that the fiber is selling for $1.09 - compared to just $0.65 last year.

"The price of cotton is the highest it's been since 1995 when there was a worldwide shortage of cotton, too," Billy Eggemeyer, a cotton farmer from Upton County, Texas, told NewsWest 9.

 However, high cotton prices don't necessarily equal big profits for farmers. Thanks to the cost of irrigation, fertilizer, pesticides, farm maintenance and labor, it typically takes between 60 and 65 cents to produce one pound of cotton, according to the source.

"We have much more fertilizer costs for our electricity. We have $100 to $125 an acre in electricity charges, just trying to irrigate our crop," Eggemeyer added.

The cotton market is also very volatile. Although cotton prices are high today, they could sink tomorrow, said cotton professional Mark Hodges.

"Nobody really knows what the market is going to be in 10 minutes," Hodges told the Tidewater News. "It can go down as fast as it goes up."
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