Cotton futures advanced for a fourth straight session as Hurricane Irene damaged crops in North Carolina, further limiting supplies from the U.S., the worldΆs biggest exporter.

Irene caused “very significant” damage to farms in Virginia and North Carolina, the fourth-biggest cotton-producing state, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said yesterday. The commodity rose 4 percent in August as the worst drought in more than 100 years scorched fields in Texas, the top U.S. grower.

“What weΆve heard about IreneΆs impact on North Carolina is still anecdotal, but that has lent support,” Gary Raines, an economist and analyst for FCStone LLC in Nashville, Tennessee, said in a telephone interview.
Cotton for December delivery rose 0.39 cent, or 0.4 percent, to settle at $1.0581 a pound at 2:30 p.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Prices dropped have 27 percent this year.

“Demand remains soft, and countries like India are still offering cotton at prices below those seen in the U.S.,” Jack Scoville, a vice president at Price Futures Group in Chicago, said in an e-mail.

Production in India, the biggest grower after China, may jump 9 percent to a record for a second year, Textiles Commissioner A.B. Joshi said yesterday. Rising output may lead the government to allow more exports next year, said Parth Mehta, joint managing director of Bhadresh Trading Corp., the countryΆs biggest exporter.