Industry Odisha Bureau, Aug 2 :- India’s textile industry faces a delicate balancing act. Domestic cotton consumption among spinning mills and small manufacturers is surging projected to reach 320 lakh bales in the current season, up from 306 lakh bales previously yet domestic harvests are contracting. The gap is widening, and imports are filling it.
During the 2025-26 marketing season that began in October, cotton production is forecast at 290.24 lakh bales, down roughly seven lakh from the preceding year’s 297.24 lakh bales. Despite this decline, yield per hectare has actually improved, suggesting that productivity gains are offsetting acreage losses. Yet the arithmetic remains uncomfortable: domestic supply is tightening just as manufacturing demand strengthens.
The data reveals the paradox. Cotton yarn exports have exceeded 100 million kilograms monthly for six consecutive months, signalling robust international demand for India’s value-added textile products. Simultaneously, import flows have increased by approximately 15 lakh bales, with industry estimates projecting the season will conclude with roughly 60 lakh bales of imported cotton a historic reliance on foreign fibre for domestic mills.
The Cotton Association of India projects total availability, including imports, at 337 lakh bales, sufficient to meet anticipated consumption. Yet inventory levels entering the next season are projected at merely 42 lakh bales, the lowest in three years, leaving negligible buffer for supply disruptions.
This squeeze reflects a fundamental reorientation: India’s textile ecosystem is expanding faster than domestic cotton cultivation can accommodate. Acreage concerns loom large among growers, with monsoon performance emerging as a critical variable for the coming harvest.
Building momentum requires strengthening productivity across cotton-growing regions through improved seeds, enhanced irrigation, and precision farming techniques investments that could help domestic cultivation keep pace with manufacturing expansion and export ambitions.
