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Although India and Australia had entered into the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), which came into effect in the last week of 2022, this increase in imports was caused by the unusual rise in prices. The agreement provides for duty-free imports with quantitative restrictions, but the high prices last year led to an increase in imports.
According to Fibre2Fashion's market insight tool TexPro, India's textile industry imported 80.860 million kg (475,652 bales of 170 kg) of cotton last year, valued at $283.766 million. This represents a 4.28-fold increase in value and a 2.66-fold increase in volume compared to the previous year when imports were valued at $66.011 million (quantity 30.344 million kg). Cotton imports peaked at $173.933 million (48.789 million kg) during the third quarter of last year, when Indian cotton prices were still very high, well before the arrival of the new crop.
India's cotton imports were valued at $6.352 million (3.358 million kg) in 2020, $33.068 million (17.284 million kg) in 2019, and $57.451 million (27.268 million kg) in 2018, as per TexPro. It is expected that cotton imports from Australia will continue to rise in the coming years as India's textile industry may require more imports. The duty-free access to Australian cotton will provide some relief to the industry when prices rise excessively.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)