By Julie Wernau

Cotton prices resumed their bullish stance Monday following Friday's profit-taking slump.

Cotton for December delivery rose 0.3% to 70.26 cents a pound on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange, on track to close higher for the fifth time in six sessions.

Open interest has risen sharply in the contract over the last week as prices have broken higher over concerns about the size and quality of this year's cotton crop at a time when sales of the fiber have been outpacing export projections.

For the week ended Sept. 15, net sales of upland cotton, the most common variety in the U.S., were up 45% from the previous week at 197,900 bales and exports rose 26% to 157,700 bales.

The U.S. Agriculture Department said in its September estimate of world agricultural supply and demand that it expects the U.S. to export 11.5 million bales of cotton in season that began Aug. 1. So far, 47% of the year's harvest has been committed for sale versus the export target.

The U.S. cotton harvest has just begun with 6% of cotton harvested as of the week ended Sept. 18 versus a five-year average for this time of year of 7%, according to USDA. But the quality of that crop is so far being reported as worse than last year, with 48% of the crop in good or excellent condition versus 52% the year prior.

"Picking and harvesting for quality will bring the best bang for the buck to most producers in the next few weeks," said Louis Rose, founder of commodities-consulting firm Risk Analytics.

Commerzbank said in a note that more buying from China, along with higher prices there and in India also stirred bullish investor sentiment.

In other markets, raw sugar for March rose 1.6% to 23.07 cents a pound, cocoa for December was down 0.4% at $2,840 a ton, arabica coffee fell 0.4% to $1.5095 a pound, and frozen concentrated orange juice futures for November were up 1% a $2.047 a pound.

Write to Julie Wernau at julie.wernau@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 26, 2016 11:52 ET (15:52 GMT)