Buoyed by the good prices this season, farmers in India are expected to plant 15 to 20 per cent more cotton in the 2017-18 season.

Tightness in domestic supply is also boosting imports, as farmers hold off on deliveries in the hope of achieving higher prices later in the crop year.Usually Indian mills import cotton in the second half of the crop year as domestic supplies dwindle. But this year they began importing in January as local prices jumped due to limited supplies.

The last time cotton imports touched a record high was in 2001-02 when they were 25 lakh bales. In the 2015-16 season, India had imported 20 lakh bales of cotton.

Cotton exports which were brisk at the start of the season, touching 30 lakh bales, have become subdued with international rates coming on par with India’s.

In the coming season, the country is likely to export some 5,00,000 to 8,00,000 bales of cotton to China.

Traders anticipate the export of some five or seven lakh bales before the start of the new season. There is good demand from Vietnam. Some demand is also coming from Indonesia and Pakistan. A major portion of the export has happened to Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam and China at the start of the season.