Cotton Export Estimated at 40 Lakh Bales in 2022-23

Cotton export of India is expected to reach 40 Lakh bales for the current season of 2022-23. Union Minister of State for Textiles, Darshana Jardosh furnished a physical report to the Lok Sabha with the annexure of state-wise data of cotton production of the past two consecutive seasons along with the current season.

Amongst the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu all being the producers of cotton in India, alone Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana account for almost 65% of the total cotton production in the country.

According to the annexed data, in 2020-21, Maharashtra accounted for 101.05 lakh bales of production of cotton which dropped to 71.18 lakh bales in the season of 2021-22. The production number of cotton in the current season looks promising and is to increase to 80.25 lakh bales. 

Production in Gujarat saw a gradual increase from 72.18 lakh bales to 74.82 lakh bales in 2020-21 and 2021-22 consecutively. The production number is estimated to hike to 91.83 lakh bales in the current season of 2022-2023.

The total production of cotton in India for the current season is expected to go up to 341.91 lakh bales from last year’s 312.03 lakh bales. The current season of 2022-23 of cotton production started on October 1st. The provisional numbers released are transitory. 

The export is dependent on factors like increase and decrease of demand in the international markets and valued price margin. It also will depend on the amount of available surplus cotton. The Government of India has previously set a long-term goal to raise $ 100 billion of textiles industry exports by the season of 2025-26.

In 2020, India ranked, the third highest exporter of raw cotton globally. It accounted for about 10.2% of the total global exports. The value of the exports amounted to US $ 6.3 billion in the year 2020-21, and US $ 9.9 billion between 2021-2022.