Cotton Prices Fall 66 Percent From Last Year

66 was yesterday’s magic number. That’s how much cotton prices have fallen since last year’s peak of $2.20 a pound, cutting raw-material costs for apparel makers like San Francisco’s Levi Strauss.

Record prices spurred farmers to expand output, and the 2012 harvest will exceed demand for a third straight year, swelling stockpiles by 10 percent to 74.7 million bales by August, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates.