Cotton output in the U.S., the world’s top exporter, will be unchanged from May’s estimate which forecast a 9.2 percent increase from the previous year, the government said.

The crop for the marketing year starting Aug. 1 will total 17 million bales, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a report. The average estimate of six analysts in a Bloomberg News survey was 17.63 million bales, each weighing 480 pounds, or 218 kilograms. The crop estimate for the current season is 15.57 million bales.

Analysts expected a higher estimate after Tropical Storm Beryl brought beneficial rains to Georgia last month and recent storms eased dry conditions in Texas, Gary Raines, an economist at FCStone Fibers and Textiles in Nashville, Tennessee, said in an e-mail before the report.

Last year, the worst drought in at least a century decimated crops in Texas.

The area to be harvested will rise to 10.5 million acres from 9.46 million this year, according to the USDA report.

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