India raises cotton export estimate by 27 percent to 11.4 mn bales

India, the world’s second-biggest cotton producer with strong global demand flowing from buyers beyond China as increased its export estimate for the crop year ending September by 27 per cent on Wednesday.

The new estimate of 11.4 million bales is also higher than India’s shipments last year and could further pressure New York cotton futures that hit their lowest in about one and half years on Tuesday. (1 Indian bale = 170 kg)

India’s Textile Commissioner Kiran Soni Gupta said that apart from China which accounts for more than 60 per cent of total raw cotton exports from India, countries such as Bangladesh, Turkey, Indonesia and Cambodia are fast lapping up cotton from India to feed their export-focused garment industries. Now, there is a need to add on to our value addition like manufacturing and processing capacities.

India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi to encourage value addition has in the past urged farmers to adopt what he calls his ‘five F’ formula: farm to fibre to fabric to fashion to foreign.

The estimate for cotton output this crop year has also been raised to 39 million bales from 37.5 million bales as yields have risen by a tenth to 565 kg per hectare.

Rise in cotton yields is mainly seen due to the increasing use of hybrid and genetically modified seeds. Regardless of the increasing production, exports is likely to trend lower in coming years as there would be raise in the consumption by local mills and less buying from China due to its unwinding stockpile scheme