As per reports by the Cotton Association of India (CAI), Over 90% of cotton crop for the current season October 2020 to September 2021 has reached the markets across India as on March 31. CAI informed that 326.76 lakh bales of cotton had already arrived in various markets by the end of March. The estimated projection was 360 lakh bales.
CAI has increased the production estimate to 360 lakh bales looking at the higher input in North India. Total supplies of cotton in the first six months were 459.26 lakh bales. Apart from the market arrivals, cotton supplies include imports of 7.50 lakh bales and a record opening stock of a whopping 125 lakh bales during the start of the season.
With regard to consumption, CAI estimates that a total of 165 lakh cotton bales are consumed by the end users. In an overall consumption estimate, CAI sticks to its projected consumption of 330 lakh bales for 2020-21 October-September season.
The President of CAI, Atul Ganatra, informed about an increase of 80 lakh bales in the estimate of consumption of cotton compared to 250 lakh bales estimated previous year. According to the President, this year will see the normalization in consumption after labor shortage and disruptions due to country-wide lockdown.
Looking at the latest review of crop estimate for March, CAI has increased cotton production estimate to 360 lakh bales. Earlier, it had estimated 358.5 lakh bales. The addition of 1.50,000 bales is due to the brighter crop prospects of North India, amounting to 50,000 bales each in Lower Rajasthan, Upper Rajasthan, and Haryana.
The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), multinational companies, Maharashtra Federation, traders, ginners, and MCX are estimated to have a total cotton stock of around 156.26 lakh bales as on March 31. CAI projectes to close the current cotton year (October-September 2020-21) with a closing stock of around 106 lakh bales.
