India, the largest cotton producer in the world after China, has the lowest per-hectare yield of 461 kg among all major cotton producers. It is even lower than its next-door neighbors. Bangladesh with 734 kg per hectare and Pakistan with 566 kg per hectare.
Australia produces the highest quantity of cotton per hectare 2040 kg. These figures have been taken from the United States Department of Agriculture related to cotton production in different countries in 2022. The statistics of other major producers reveal that the US gets a cotton yield of 94 kg per hectare, Brazil 1769 per hectare, and Turkey 1762 kg per hectare. Pakistan harvested the highest cotton yield at an average of 768 kg per hectare in 1991. India got the highest cotton yield of 566 kg per hectare in 2013-14.
The capacity utilization of the Indian textile industry has plunged 50 percent with domestic cotton prices ruling much above the international market due to the levy of import duty. President Cotton Association of India said at the 100th Annual General Meeting of the association that the import duty on cotton has eroded the competitiveness of value-added products in the international markets and the textile industry is now constrained to work with only 50 percent of its installed capacity.
India, despite being one of the largest cotton exporters, has to import 1.5 million extra-long staples (ELS) cotton bales as the ELS production is much lower than the demand in the country. The ELS import comes from Egypt, US, and Australia.
