Mumbai: Cotton exports from India, the second biggest grower, will more than double this crop season as China and Pakistan seek more fibre to make up for a shortfall in supplies from the US, a government official said.
Shipments in the year that started 1 October may exceed seven million bales of 170kg each, compared with 3.3 million bales a year earlier, textiles commissioner A.B. Joshi said in a telephone interview in Mumbai. Production is forecast to rise 5% to 30.5 million bales after farmers planted the crop to a record area this year, he said.