Farmers benefit from demand for cotton stems in floral bouqets

It’s a product often taken for granted in what we wear but is now on display in its most natural form across Aussie homes, connecting the city to the bush.

It’s a product often taken for granted in what we wear but is now on display in its most natural form across Aussie homes, connecting the city to the bush.

A growing trend to use natural cotton stem as home decor is creating income diversity for farmers across the state as trend setters are scrambling to get their hands on a piece of the fluffy white fibre and are willing to pay.

Cotton Australia General Manager Michael Murray said although cotton decor is “very much a niche market” the average grower that has had the opportunity to provide cotton to a florist or store “would be very proud of their produce and seeing it in a florist or a store in the city is very positive”.

“As time has gone on many city and rural people don’t have the connection they once did to the country, so it’s great that people see the product that we sometimes take for granted in our clothing,” Mr Murray said.

“We’d really like to use this trend to tell a story of the modern Australian cotton crop.

“There is this perception that cotton is a high chemical and water user but since 1992 we are using 97 per cent less insecticide than what we did.

Georgia Hogan sells cotton at a gift shop at the Whitton Malt House. Picture: Michael Frogley.

With city florists selling the products for up to $30 a stem, Mr Murray said the trend for the long lasting decoration has had a “mixed reaction of surprise and pride” from farmers.

“When a stem is selling for that amount and then you could work out some sort of phenomenal figure for the value of that one hectare of cotton, I think farmers are surprised by the price of cotton in a bouquet,” Murray said.

“But at the end of the day it is a niche market and I think that anything that gets people in touch and shows them that it is a natural product is great.”

Coleambally farmer Georgia Hogan, 21, has created a side business with her brother Tom “Cotton & Co”, selling the cotton in jars and as a natural stem, after she saw the prices people were paying for cotton in the city.

Georgia Hogan, 21, works on her family cotton farm in Coleambally. Picture: Michael Frogley.

“I lived in Melbourne a year ago and the price that people were paying for a stem of cotton was unbelievable,” Miss Hogan said.

“Not a lot of people know how cotton is grown or the fibre looks straight out of the paddock.”

“So selling our cotton in jars and stems has been amazing as we have seen so much interest in the fibre.”

Cotton & Co sells cotton to online buyers all across Australia as well as to locals and visitors from their store at the Whitton Malt House.

“Our online buyers come from all across Australia, we are always restocking which is great,” she said.

“Our most recent cotton harvest was really good, most of our cotton modules go to our local gin, Southern Cotton.”