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India’s domestic cotton demand for the 2022-23 season up to September is estimated to be lower by about 18 lakh bales (170 kg each) at 300 lakh bales or nearly 6 per cent less than last year’s 318 lakh bales, the Cotton Association of India (CAI) has estimated. The association’s Cotton Crop Committee meeting on Monday attributed the decline in domestic consumption to a reduction in operations of mills due to slack demand for yarn and cloth.
The cotton trade body said spinning mills operated at 40-60 per cent capacity in the first quarter, which may cause cotton consumption to drop in India for the year starting October 2022.
Closing stock up
“Looking at the unfavourable scenario, cotton exports have been estimated to be lower by 5 lakh bales to 30 lakh bales for the year against earlier estimate of 35 lakh bales,” said Atul Ganatra, President, CAI. He said due to the reduction of 20 lakh bales in cotton consumption and reduction of five lakh bales in export, closing cotton stock as on September 30, 2023, will increase by 25 lakh bales to 57.89 lakh bales against earlier estimates of 32.89 lakh bales.
Last season, India exported 43 lakh bales of cotton. However, Ganatra said there was poor demand for yarn and clothing in the export market.
Spot ginned cotton prices for 29 mm variety quoted at ₹69,000 per candy (356 kg each) on Monday (November 14) against ₹66,700 a year ago. In the first month of the cotton season, the total cotton arrivals were estimated at 18.35 lakh bales, the CAI noted.
The association has revised its crop estimate for Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab. It has increased the crop estimate for Gujarat by 2.5 lakh bales, taking the total crop estimate for the largest grower to 93.5 lakh bales. The production estimate for Haryana has been reduced by 2 lakh bales to 14.5 lakh bales, while the crop projection for Punjab has been reduced by 0.5 lakh bales to 4.5 lakh bales.
On import front, CAI has estimated cotton import of 12 lakh bales for the crop year 2022-23, indicating a dip of about 2 lakh bales, from 14 lakh bales estimated for the crop year 2021-22.
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