This is the second instance of CCI reducing the prices in the recent days. | Photo Credit: Wirestock

The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) on Friday resumed the sales of the fibre crop procured from the 2025-26 season and also reduced the price by ₹2,300 per candy (356 kg) following an easing trend in global prices.

However, the response from the trade and the mills was muted. Despite the price cut, CCI could sell only around 1,200 bales on Friday, of which some 800 bales were purchased by the millers and the rest by the trade, sources said.

This is the second instance of CCI reducing the prices in the recent days. Last week, CCI had reduced the price by ₹700 per candy. It had stopped the sales citing technical reasons on May 22.

Price mismatch

“Even at these reduced prices, the sales were meagre as there are less buyers. There is still a mismatch in price. The buyers are seen preferring to wait and watch. Moreover, the prevailing yarn prices are not supporting them,” said Ramanuj Das Boob, a sourcing agent in Raichur.

The easing trend witnessed in recent days in global prices has prompted CCI to carry out a price correction. Following the decline in ICE Futures, resellers were seen offering cotton at a discount of about ₹2,000 per candy to the CCI price early this week.

ICE cotton futures which had gained around 47 per cent since early February this year, to touch 88 cents per pound on May 11, have eased and are hovering around 76 cents per pound on factors such as improved weather prospects in US and Brazil and decline in crude oil prices, among others.

Hike in MSP

CCI, which has procured about 105 lakh bales of 170 kg each, has sold a major chunk of the cotton and stocks with the State-run entity are estimated at around 32 lakh bales.

CCI, which began selling the 2025-26 crop procured at the minimum support price from around ₹57,200 per candy, reduced the prices initially to about ₹54,600 and subsequently increased the prices gradually to up to ₹68,600 levels.

Early on Tuesday, the trade body Cotton Association of India (CAI) said that it expects the cotton acreage to rise by around 7 per cent in the upcoming kharif cropping season as farmers, encouraged by the remunerative prices are set to expand the acreages.

Cotton was planted on 114.82 lakh hectares during 2025-26, according to the Agriculture Ministry data. For the 2026-27 marketing season, the Centre has increased minimum support price by ₹557 per quintal to ₹8,267 for medium staple and ₹8,667 for long staple.

Published on May 29, 2026