01 · Fiber
Raw Pima cotton
$1.50 / lbPremium fiber is already grown and baled in Arizona.
The Economic Case
America grows the fiber.
Others capture the value.
Premium Pima leaves the country before its most important transformation: spinning. The result is a longer supply chain, a missing industrial link, and American value that compounds somewhere else.
The problem at a glance
See the fiber. Follow the value.
Cotton is not the missing ingredient. The missing step is turning that cotton into premium yarn here at home.
02 · Spin
Ring-spun yarn
$3 / lbThe pivotal transformation: loose fiber becomes premium, usable yarn.
03 · Make
Fabric to finished goods
$12 / lb to $115Knitting, cutting, sewing and retail compound the value created after spinning.
What the missing spindle causes
Fiber takes an offshore detour.
Without the second step at scale, cotton travels out for transformation and finished goods travel back. 2,900+ miles is the modeled round-trip distance used in this case.
Values illustrate how economic value can compound across the chain. Capacity statements are an industry assessment; route and price figures are modeled assumptions. Photos: Alabama Extension, USDA, Hummelhummel; production photo used with permission.
From field to finished goods
See where the value is created.
$1.76 / lb
The modeled spinning value-add is created at the second step. Today, too much of that work happens after the fiber leaves the United States.
The economic story begins in the field, before any conversion value has been added.
Spinning turns cleaned fiber into consistent, usable yarn—the first major manufacturing step.
Freight and lead time enter the chain before the yarn returns to American buyers.
Fabric preparation, cutting, sewing, finishing, and retail all build on the yarn beneath them.
Documentary photography: Jennifer A. Johnson · Peter Barr · Hummelhummel. Licensed CC BY-SA; project production photo used with permission.
Side by side
Same fiber. A different economic path.
The choice is not whether American Pima gets spun. It is where the conversion happens—and where the value stays.
Today
Offshore lane
- American raw fiber
- Yes
- Spinning value-add
- Leaves U.S.
- Freight & lead time
- Ocean + weeks
- Delivered yarn
- Imported
Yuma model
Domestic lane
- American raw fiber
- Yes
- Spinning value-add
- Retained at home
- Freight & lead time
- Regional + days
- Delivered yarn
- $4.40–$4.60 / lb target
The Yuma model
Put the spindle beside the fiber.
A domestic ring-spinning hub reconnects the chain at the point where value currently exits—turning Arizona cotton into American yarn before it travels to mills and brands.
01GrowArizona Pima
→02SpinYuma, Arizona
→03KnitU.S. mills
→04WearAmerican market
The economic case is a geography decision: keep the fiber's first major transformation close to where it is grown.