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Cotton farmers fear glut as demand from China dries up |
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AHMEDABAD: With the demand for cotton from China having virtually dried up, cotton farmers in the state are a worried lot, particularly because prices of the fibre are falling sharply. This has made the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) announce a support price for cotton. It is also gearing up to procure cotton at the minimum support price (MSP) in Gujarat too. Earlier, the CCI had announced support price for Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Odisha.
Officials in the state government said that the fall in cotton prices was the result of there being no demand for the fibre from China in the international market. Last year 1.20 crore bales were exported from India and, of these, 70 lakh bales (around 58%) were to China alone.
This year, however, China has stopped importing cotton because of labour problems and the cost involved.
According to government officials, cotton production in the state this year was around 9% higher than the output last year. "The output this year is expected to be around 4.25 crore bales (each of 20 kg each) while it was 3.9 crore bales last year. There is likely to be a condition of oversupply in the market," said a source.
Bharat Vala, president of Saurashtra Ginning Mills Association, said this year's cotton had started arriving in the market but there is virtually no demand from China. "Usually, we get advance booking but this year, because of labour and cost problems, there is no demand from China," he said.
The arrival of this year's cotton crop had been delayed because of the delay in monsoon this year.
Industry insiders believe that government agencies need to intervene and take immediate measures to increase exports in view of the bumper cotton crop.
Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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