I run sourcing for cotton buyers overseas, and the #1 mistake I see importers make is picking a supplier off Alibaba/IndiaMART based purely on quoted price. Here's what actually matters when vetting an Indian cotton exporter:

1. Ginning factory affiliation, not just a trading name. Ask who ginned the cotton and where. A trader reselling from 3 different ginners with no consistency will give you a mixed bale — inconsistent micronaire and staple length lot to lot.

2. Ask for the actual test certificate (HVI report), not a sales sheet. Staple length, micronaire, strength, trash content, and moisture % should all be documented per lot — not "approx" numbers on a PDF quote.

3. FOB vs CIF pricing confusion kills margins. A lot of first-time importers compare a CIF quote from one exporter against an FOB quote from another and think they got a better deal. Always normalize to the same incoterm before comparing.

4. Payment terms tell you everything. A legitimate mid-size exporter will work with LC at sight or a reasonable partial-advance + balance-on-BL structure. If someone's demanding 100% advance with no documentation trail, that's a red flag regardless of how good the price looks.

5. Shipment history > promises. Ask for prior BL (bill of lading) copies with buyer names redacted. Real export volume leaves a paper trail — a supplier who's "about to start exporting at scale" usually isn't ready for your order size.

If you're sourcing cotton and want direct intros to exporters we've already vetted on these points, that's exactly what we built. Happy to answer sourcing questions in the comments either way.