SAO PAULO, April 14 (Reuters) - Germany's Bayer believes that Brazil's cotton area growth may be limited after a sharp drop in global prices, though prospects are brighter in the longer run.

In an interview with Reuters, Bayer executives said cotton planting could potentially grow by 2% to 3% in 2023/24. However, after global prices fell by almost half compared to 2022's highs, that prediction might not materialize.

"Next year's planting will depend on the price of the commodity," said Bayer's global cotton leader, Shea Murdock, ahead of a 10-day trip to main producing areas in Mato Grosso and Bahia. "We are going to have these ups and downs, as we have always had in the price of cotton, but in the long run demand remains sustainable," he said, adding the total area could grow slightly to 1.7 million hectares from about 1.65 million hectares.

Cotton prices dropped to around 80 cents per pound in New York, marking an almost 10-year low.

Still, Murdock said that Bayer, which controls about half of the market for genetically modified cotton seeds in Brazil, is preparing new product launches, citing good market prospects and export demand.

China bought about a fourth of Brazil's cotton exports in 2022, which totaled almost $4 billion, including fibers and textiles.

Eduardo Correa, Bayer's Latin America cotton leader, said Brazil has "great potential for opening up areas," though "macroeconomic and microeconomic issues impact the speed of this advance."

In 2021, Bayer launched its latest cotton seed biotechnology in Brazil, the Bollgard 3 RRFlex, offering protection against the certain caterpillars.

In two years' time, it plans the launch of Bollgard 3 XtendFlex, which adds tolerance to herbicides dicamba and glufosinate, and is already in use in the U.S.

The rollout of the new technology will come despite an ongoing legal challenge over the patent for the Bollgard 2, launched on the local market in 2013, the executives said.

"In 2019, Bollgard became the most used technology in Brazil and remains until today," Correa said. "This shows that the farmers like it."

(Reporting by Roberto Samora and Ana Mano; Editing by Josie Kao)