India expects big cotton harvest

10 December 1998

India expects big cotton harvest

INDIA expects to harvest a huge crop of cotton – some 17.5 million bales of 170kg – in the current season.

Prices have already started falling as this years crop hits the market.

India, the worlds third largest producer of cotton, is expecting to sell larger volumes of cotton abroad this season.

But the domestic industry remains opposed to large-scale exports, even though demand from the recession-hit textile industry will remain unchanged at 14.4m bales.

There is concern among growers organisations that, if prices drop, there will be a large-scale diversion of land to other crops.

• Financial Times 10/12/98 page 36