June 13 (Reuters) - ICE cotton futures dropped to their
lowest since end-January on Tuesday on expectations of a robust
harvest of the natural fiber.

"People are just getting more used to bearish scenario next
year. So they expect bigger crop turnover and nobody wants to
buy the market at the moment," said Peter Egli, director of risk
management at British merchant Plexus Cotton.

"Everybody is just squaring off positions and expecting
bearish new crop scenario."

The most-active December cotton contract on ICE futures U.S.
settled down 0.62 cent, or 0.86 percent, at 71.82 cents
per lb. Prices earlier hit 71.75 cents per lb, the lowest since
Jan. 31 and just above the 200-day moving average.

"The technicals look weak so thatΆs why the specs are
getting out," Egli said.

Speculators reduced a bullish stance in cotton futures and
options to the lowest since November 2016, the Commodities
Futures Trading Commission data showed on Friday.

Elsewhere, the government data on Monday showed 92 percent
of cotton crops were harvested in the United States by the week
ended June 11, up from 80 percent in the previous week.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture rated 66 percent of the
U.S. cotton crop in good to excellent condition, up from 61
percent a week ago.

"MondayΆs crop condition ratings continue to seem higher
than reports we receive from people with boots on the ground
across major U.S. producing regions," Louis Rose, co-founder and
director of research and analytics at Rose Commodity Group, said
in a note.

Meanwhile, the July cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S.
fell 0.9 percent to 74.48 cents per lb. July contract
also touched a more than four-month low of 74.31 cents per lb.

Total futures market volume rose by 6,968 to 44,280 lots.
Data showed total open interest gained 1,086 to 234,071
contracts in the previous session.

The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which
tracks 19 commodities, was down 0.06 percent.
(Reporting by Swati Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by Bill Trott)