COIMBATORE: The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), New Delhi, and the Southern India Mills' Association (SIMA), Coimbatore expressed hope that yarn prices would start to moderate in May after the Union government removed duty on cotton import.
Addressing media persons, CITI chairman T Rajkumar, and SIMA chairman Ravi Sam, said, "From May, the prices will gradually come down. We request and expect the yarn industries to reduce the prices soon. The duty cut has come at the right time and would help livelihood of thousands of workers."
They further said, "This year's cotton production is estimated to be around 340 lakh bales, but we expect to receive around 325 lakh only. Also, we fear production will be 45 lakh bales less than the previous year.The industry started facing cancellation of export orders owing to the steep increase in cotton prices. Indian cotton is costlier by 7% to 10% due to the import duty. Under this scenario, the competing nations started grabbing the export opportunities of India.
For example, India's share in US bedlinen exports declined from an average of 55% in 2021 to 44.85% in the month of January 2022 only. Meanwhile, Pakistan's share increased to 25.71% from 20% and China's share increased to 19.37% from 12% during the same period. Therefore, the industry had demanded the government to remove the import duty levied on cotton."
According to sources, a single candy of cotton (355 kg) is sold at Rs 93,500. With duty cut, the price is expected to drop below Rs 80,000 in the next few weeks. Also, India is likely to get more orders from international markets due to the situation in Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
"We are not against farmers. They won't be affected by the import. In Madhya Pradesh, farmers have been cultivating extra long staple cotton of 36 mm. But they are able to cultivate only 2 lakh bales. So, we need to encourage other state farmers including Tamil Nadu to cultivate such varieties." the industry captains added.