About half of the fibre procured in the crop year 2014-15 under the minimum support price (MSP) operation was sold off, by government-based Cotton Corporation of India (CCI). Since October last year, the CCI has acquired 8.6 million bales (a bale is 170 kg), totally. This it started offloading in the domestic and international markets through daily and weekly tenders. This included export of 80,000-100,000 bales to Bangladesh.

The price of cotton at Rs 33,000 a candy (356 kg) is at a four-year low. Domestic textile mills complain that CCI has not been releasing enough, though, the quantity of sale is quite considerable, which has resulted in a rise in prices. B K Mishra, Chairman and Managing Director states they had kept more than 100,000 bales on a daily basis for sale and the daily average they estimated from mills was at 80,000-90,000 bales. He added for August and September, they have kept 1.5 to two million bales to sell to the domestic textile mills.

The CCI entered into MSP operations after many years of regular purchases on behalf of customers, only on direction from the government and acquired 8.6 million bales out of its target of nine million. The problem of liquidation started with slow pick-up from China, due to slowing in the country's economy, China is one of the world's largest consumers.

In the crop year 2014-15 (October-September), the Cotton Advisory Board estimates output at 40 million bales, against 39.8 million of the previous season. The US department of agriculture estimates output at 37.5 millon bales in the harvesting season 2015-16, starting this October. Besides, CCI is looking at sales opportunities in other Asian markets such as Thailand.