The board, which met here today, had earlier estimated 2007-08 production at 31 million bales.
"The higher production has been mainly because of higher acreage and better yield," said J N Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Textiles.
The total acreage increased to 9.55 million hectares compared with 9.14 million hectares in 2006-07, up 4.5 per cent. Bt cotton occupied 65 per cent of the total acreage.
Gujarat emerged as the leader in cotton production with 11.2 million bales followed by Maharashtra (6.2 mn bales), Andhra Pradesh (4.6 mn bales) and Punjab (2.2 mn bales).
The exports during the year are estimated at 8.5 million bales against last year's 5.8 million bales. The imports in 2007-08 stood at 6.5 million bales.
The consumption by the domestic textiles mills in the country grew to 20.3 million bales during the year under review against 19.5 million bales in the previous year.
According to the latest data from the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), India is at the second position in cotton production after China. In 2007-08, China is estimated to produce 46 million bales of cotton followed by India at 31.6 million bales.
The US is at the third position with an estimated cotton output of 24.8 million bales. America suffered 18 per cent loss in its cotton acreage mainly on account of farmers shifting to crops like maize.
