India Cotton Farmers’ Local Sales Drop on Lower Output, Price

By Thomas Kutty Abraham

Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- India’s cotton farmers, together the world’s second-biggest producers, sold 20 percent less in the crop season that began Oct. 1 because of a lower than expected harvest and a decline in prices.

Market arrivals fell to 14 million bales as on Jan. 10 from 17.4 million bales in the year-ago period, the Cotton Corp. of India, the nation’s biggest buyer, said on its Web site. Daily arrivals are about 220,000 bales of 170 kilograms each, it said.

The biggest decline was in Gujarat and Maharashtra, India’s largest cotton-producing states, Cotton Corp. said. Arrivals in Gujarat fell to 3.1 million bales from 5.7 million bales a year earlier, and a total 3.09 million bales were brought to markets in Maharashtra, down from 3.8 million bales a year earlier.

India’s output may climb 2.2 percent to 32.2 million bales in the year ending September from a year earlier, according to the Cotton Advisory Board.

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Kutty Abraham in Mumbai at tabraham4@bloomberg.net