With the government not extending the 11 % import duty exemption on cotton beyond December 31, 2025, the price of domestic cotton is firming up.
Price of the widely-used Shankar-6 variety of cotton was ₹52,500 a candy on December 15, ₹53,500 on December 27, ₹53,800 on December 30, and ₹54,000 on Saturday (January 3).
India imported almost 30 lakh bales from October 1 to December 31, 2025. Right now, imported cotton price will be higher for the Indian textile mills. However, quality of Indian cotton is affected this year because of unseasonal rains and if the prices increase, the Indian textile mills will not be able to compete in the international market. The farmers will not be affected by removal of the import duty as the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) is purchasing cotton from them at the Minimum Support Price (MSP), said Nishant Asher, secretary of the Indian Cotton Federation.
Chairman and Managing Director of the CCI Lalit Kumar Gupta toldThe Hinduthat it procured 67 lakh bales of cotton from the farmers at MSP from October to end of December 2025 as against 57 lakh bales for the same period of 2024. “Almost 45 lakh farmers and 2,000 ginners are registered on our mobile app,” he said.
The CCI purchased almost 100 lakh bales of cotton from the farmers at MSP last cotton season (October 2024 to September 2025) and expects to purchase a larger quantity this year. It will start selling the cotton with it soon so that textile mills have quality cotton during the peak season, he said.
Published – January 03, 2026 07:41 pm IST
