Cotton consumption by the textile industry in the current marketing season (October 2023 to September 2024) is one of the highest this decade, said a press release from the Ministry of Textiles.
The third meeting of the Committee on Cotton Production and Consumption for this season was held on Monday. Roop Rashi, the Textile Commissioner, said this year will be the second highest consumption out of last ten years with an estimated demand of 307 lakh bales, including 103 lakh bales from the MSME textile units.
Cotton production this season is expected to be 325.22 lakh bales, imports 12 lakh bales, and exports 28 lakh bales. The season is likely to end with 47.38 lakh bales closing stock.
Trade and industry representatives said Indian cotton prices are currently higher than the international prices and are not likely to go up further. Textile mills are operating at 75%-80% capacity and if this increases, cotton requirement will go up. Cotton yarn exports have revived to monthly 95-105 million kg while in April – December 2022, it went down to 50 million kg or lesser a month.
But mills are unable to see better margins because of production costs going up, they said.
