Cotton export totaled 9.1 mln bales in nine months

Cotton export in June was 9.10 lakh bales worth INR2,259 crore or US$312 million. This takes the total export to 95.9 lakh bales worth US$21,250 crore or US$2,925 million in the first nine months of 2020-21 marketing season. Bangladesh was the largest market for Indian cotton during the month, followed by Chi-na, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Price realisation for cotton export averaged INR146 a kg or US cents 91.42 per pound during June. This was below Cotlook A index, the global spot price benchmark and much higher than domestic spot price for benchmark Gujarat Shankar-6. During the month, Cotlook averaged US$94.60 per pound while Shankar-6 was at US cents 87.61 per pound, implying that Indian cotton was still competitive in global market.

It is likely that the 2020-21 season may end with total cotton export at just over 9 lakh bales, assuming about 0.5 lakh more bales will be exported in the next three months as usual. This would be whopping 34% increase over 67 lakh bales export in 2019-20 season and 70% more than that of 2018-19.

Rains were patchy in July over India this monsoon. Cotton sowing was slow in major producing states like Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and across northern region. Total area under cotton this season in central India was lagging by 8% compared to last year as of 22 July and 15% from normal. Although northern states recorded more coverage compared to normal, they were lagging behind previous season acreage. Punjab reportedly drop of 39% while sowing in Rajasthan was down 10%. In south India, only Andhra Pradesh was lagging with a sharp fall of 30% cotton sowing this year. Overall, a total of 10.89 million hectares were sown under cotton until 22 July, which was 8% below the area sown in the same period a year ago and was 88% of the normal area sown.

Source: Textile Beacon Global Info Services