The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has begun selling cotton it purchased for the 2025-26 marketing year.

New Delhi. Despite cotton prices reaching a seasonal high of over 56,000 rupees per candy (356 kg), the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) began selling cotton purchased for the 2025-26 marketing year on Monday.

Cotton prices were around 52,000 rupees per bale at the beginning of the cotton season in early October, gradually rising and exceeding 56,000 rupees per bale. Before January, prices were around 53,000 to 54,000 rupees per bale, the highest price of the season. The Cotton Association of India (CAI) recently revised its 2025/26 cotton production forecast upward by about 2.5%, or 750,000 bales (170 kg per bale), to 31.7 million bales. This is mainly due to higher-than-expected cotton production in Maharashtra and Telangana. The CAI predicts a surplus of 12.259 million bales in 2025/26, a 56% increase from the previous year. This is largely attributed to a record 5 million bales of cotton imports this year. As of December 31, total imports amounted to 3.1 million bales. The Cotton Association of India (CAI) expects imports to reach a record 5 million bales in the 2025/26 cotton season ending in September, compared with 4.1 million bales in the previous season.