Despite the economic crunch, people are still buying organic cotton....

Despite the economic crunch, people are still buying organic cotton. Retail sales of apparel and home textiles rose by 35 percent to $4.3 billion last year, continuing its trend of around 40 percent growth every year since 2001. The sales of clothing and textiles overall, on the other hand, dropped by almost 7 percent compared with 2008. Nike and Adidas were both among the top 12 users of organic cotton. Production of organic cotton in 2008-09 went up by 20 percent compared with the prior period. The nonprofit group Organic Exchange thinks that for this year and next, retail sales will increase by 20 to 40 percent to hit $5.1 billion for 2010, and $6.0 billion in the following year.