Indian govt upwardly revises cotton production estimate

19 Apr '13

2 min read

In view of the good crop prospects in southern Indian states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, the country’s Cotton Advisory Board (CAB) has upwardly revised its cotton production estimate for ongoing season - October 2012 to September 2013 - to 34 million bales from its January estimate of 33 million bales.

However, the projected 34 million bales production would still remain lower than last season’s actual output of 35.5 million bales, mainly due to some farmers switching to growing other crops.

Cotton production in North zone - Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana – is likely to dip from last season’s output of 6.2 million bales to 6 million bales this season, while production in Central zone – comprising of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra – is likely to fall from 21.2 million bales to 17.9 million bales.

However, cotton production in the southern zone is expected to rise above last season’s 7.6 million bales to 9.5 million bales, according to the CAB.

The total cotton supply this year is likely to remain at 40.5 million bales, a little below last season’s availability of 41.3 million bales.

The consumption by mills is likely to grow from last season’s 22.3 million bales to 24.5 million bales. The rise in demand for cotton by textile mills is due to rising demand for Indian cotton yarn from China, Textile Commissioner AB Joshi said.

Similarly, the non-mill and small scale units demand is also likely to rise above last season’s 1 million bales and 2.1 million bales, to 2 million bales and 2.2 million bales, respectively.

The CAB has also increased the cotton import estimate to 2.5 million bales, from the earlier projection of 2 million bales, as some textile mills in South India are finding it more economical to import cotton from Australia and Africa. Last season, India imported only 1.2 million bales of cotton, Mr. Joshi said.

Besides freight and some other financial benefits, the textile mills are even banking on better quality of imported cotton.

Compared to last season’s exports of 13 million bales, traders have already registered 8.9 million bales for exports this year, and 8.1 million bales of them have been shipped out of the country so far.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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