The Cotton Advisory Board, which met in Mumbai on Tuesday, had revised the cotton production estimate for this season (October 2015 to September 2016) to 352 lakh bales.
Textile Commissioner Kavita Gupta told The Hindu over phone that the production estimates were revised mainly due to white fly problem in Punjab, pink bollworm in Gujarat and drought in Karnataka. At its previous meeting in November last year, the board expected the production would be 365 lakh bales.
Procurement at MSPPrices of cotton are high now and hence, Cotton Corporation of India had procured only eight lakh bales so far at MSP (Minimum Support Price).Exports this year are expected to be 70 lakh bales.
The actual exports from October to December last year were 35.2 lakh bales mainly because of demand in Pakistan.
The textile mill consumption was expected to be 275 lakh bales and SSI consumption 26 lakh bales.
Area under cotton had dropped by 7.3 per cent and was now 118.81 lakh hectares.
Trade sources here said arrivals in the market were 1.50 lakh bales a day.
However, buying by textile mills is also slow.
Prices of Shankar 6 variety of cotton was from Rs. 32,500 to Rs. 34,000 a candy depending on quality.
