The Cotton Association of India (CAI) has estimated a production of 345 lakh bales (of 170 kg each) of the fibre in the 2015/16 season that started on October 1, down by 37.75 lakh bales from an earlier estimate.
Arrivals dip In a press release issued here, CAI said that during the October to February period, spot markets across the country registered an arrival of 245 lakh bales – down 11.3 per cent compared to the same period a year ago, indicating a lower crop.
“This reduction in the arrivals of cotton is an indication of a lower crop. If the trend of arrival does not improve in the coming months, the estimate of cotton crop for the 2015-16 cotton season will have to be lowered further,” the CAI statement said.
In comparison to the last year’s scenario, total cotton availability in the country is lesser by about 16 lakh bales, but the total demand is expected to be lesser by 71 lakh bales.
With carryover stock of about 73.60 lakh bales and imports of about 14 lakh bales, the total availability is estimated at around 432.60 lakh bales.
However, CAI has pegged the total consumption at around 304 lakh bales, of which 270 lakh bales is estimated to be consumed by mills, 24 lakh bales by small scale units, while 10 lakh bales is likely to be non-mill consumption.
Crop scenario Cotton crop in Gujarat is estimated to be around 94.5 lakh bales (108 lakh bales), in Haryana at 16 lakh bales (23.50 lakh bales).
However, the crop estimate for Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is almost in line with the last year’s crop.