Cotton export jumps 29 pc in 2017-18, Bangladesh top buyer
Cotton export ended 2017-18 marketing year (Oct-Sept) with shipment of 8.70 million bales (170 kg each) as against 6.74 million bales exported in the previous marketing year, implying a jump of 29% YoY. Bangladesh was the largest importer of Indian cotton during the year, followed by Pakistan, Vietnam and China. These four buyers accounted for 82% of total shipment and rest was exported to 37 countries, of which, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand formed 13.5%. This means only seven destinations accounted for a little more than 95% of total shipment.
Values wise, cotton export was at INR17,400 crore or US$2,700 million, increasing by 32% and 35% respectively over 2016-17 marketing season.
The unit prices realisation (FOB) averaged INR118 per kg or US cents 82.81 per pound during the year. Domestic spot prices of benchmark Gujarat Shankar-6 averages US cents 81.54 per pound while global spot benchmark, the Cotlook ‘A’ index for the same marketing period averaged US cents 90.34 per pound. This shows that realization from export was a bit higher but substantially below global spot prices.
Among the top seven destinations, FOB unit value paid by Bangladesh averaged US cents 86.67 per pound, the highest followed by Pakistan the second largest import, at US cents 82.78 per pound. The average FOB for China works out at US cents 80.12 per pound.
During the year, United Arab Emirates, Mozambique, Canada, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong and France did not import any cotton from India as they had done in 2016-17 marketing year. That year saw these six destination importing 23,000 kgs of cotton values at US$6.2 million. However, they were replaced by eleven countries which imported 7,650 kg worth US$2 million.
Malaysia, Italy, Mauritius, Portugal and Pakistan almost doubled their cotton imports from India in 2017-18 while South Africa, Turkey, Morocco, Brazil, Singapore and USA significantly reduced their cotton sourcing from India during the year.
(Source: Textile Beacon’s Fibre to Yarn Export Statistics – India covers shipment data on all kinds of fibres, spun yarns and filament yarns from Indian ports. It covers natural and manmade fibres, spun yarns of cotton, viscose, polyester, acrylic, and their blends, filament yarns of polyester, nylon, polypropylene and viscose. Three key variables, namely – Volume, value and unit price realization, are analysed by counts and markets)
