Cotton Imports Reach 27 Lakh Bales by End of May
30-Jul-2025 03:22 PM
New Delhi. To meet the domestic demand and requirement, a huge amount of cotton is being imported into India from abroad.
This import is being done from countries like Brazil, America and Australia and the share of extra long fiber cotton is higher in it.
According to the Union Minister of State for Agriculture, in the marketing season of 2024-25, compared to the 2023-24 season, the import of cotton in India from Brazil increased 10 times and from America by two times in the marketing season of 2024-25.
According to official data, during the 2024-25 season as compared to the 2023-24 season, till May 31, the import of cotton from Brazil in India jumped from 67,805 bales (each bale of 170 kg) to 6,54,819 bales and imports from America increased from 2,68,728 bales to 5,25,523 bales. The amount spent on import of US cotton also increased from Rs 1361 crore to Rs 1800 crore.
During the current marketing season from 1 October 2024 to 31 May 2025, the total import of cotton in India jumped to 27 lakh bales, which was much higher than the import of 15.19 lakh bales during the same months of the 2023-24 season. During this period, the import of cotton from Australia to India also increased from 3.58 lakh bales to 5.13 lakh bales.
In India, there was a huge decline in the sowing area and production of cotton during the 2024-25 season as compared to 2023-24, while the previous outstanding stock was also less.
However, due to the domestic market price falling below the minimum support price (MSP), the government agency - Cotton Corporation of India got the opportunity to buy about 100 lakh bales of cotton from farmers in major producing states and now it is also getting great success in selling cotton from its stock,
but due to the price of cotton in the international market being even lower than the prevailing price in the domestic market, cotton mills got an incentive to import cotton in large quantities from abroad. It is worth noting that 11 percent customs duty is applicable on the import of cotton in India,
but still it is being imported in large quantities from abroad. It will be necessary to see how much cotton is imported during June to 30 September 2025 because only then the total import of the entire 2024-25 marketing season will be known. But initial indications show that cotton imports will increase to the top level of recent years.