Cotton exports may not affect supply situation: CITI (India)

While lifting the ban on cotton exports on April 30 this year, the Government announced that it would review the cotton situation in the country in three weeks’ time. However, no further review has taken place since then and it now assumed that the policy to allow free export of cotton would continue for the remaining crop season that ends in September, 2012.

 

Cotton arrivals in major Indian markets have been slightly lower during the current marketing season at 32.12 million bales of 170 kg each till May 27, 2012, compared to arrival of 32.15 million bales during the comparable period of the previous season.

 

“In its last meeting, the Cotton Advisory Board (CAB) forecasted that the cotton stock would be precariously low by the end of the current season in September 2012,” Mr. DK Nair, Secretary General of Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) told fibre2fashion.

 

“CITI is of the opinion that export of cotton should be restricted to the exportable surplus assessed by the CAB,” informs Mr. Nair.

 

“However export demand is now low and Indian prices are higher than global prices. Hence, there does not seem to be any imminent danger of exports adding seriously to the problem of cotton shortage,” he adds.

 

Sharing his views about the expected crop size during the next season that is to begin in October 2012, he quips, “It is too early to assess the crop size of next year, since sowing is not over and the area under cotton needs to be assessed after completion of sowing. But, given the current price situation, the area under cotton may come down.”