Date: 16 October 2017
However, quality may remain an issue for textile mills
Cotton prices have started declining with the beginning of new cotton season (October 2017 to September 2018) and the trend is expected to continue in the coming weeks with even further decrease.
“Arrivals from States such as Punjab and Haryana are good,” said J. Thulasidharan, chairman, Indian Cotton Federation. “After Deepavali, we expect more than one lakh bales arriving in the market every day.”
Cotton crop this year might touch 390 lakh bales against 345 lakh bales last year (October 2016 to September 2017). Price of Shankar 6 variety was Rs. 42,300 a candy in the beginning of September and now it is Rs. 39,000. Prices could go down to the minimum support price levels. he said.
For the textile mills, the main consumers of cotton, while there would not be shortage of the commodity, there could be issues related to quality, according to industry sources. Some ginners in Gujarat reportedly added comber noil (cotton waste) with cotton last season leading to quality problems, the sources added. High trash content or adulteration in cotton will affect textile mills.
As a permanent solution, there should be 100% testing of cotton bales and tagging at the ginning units, according to P. Nataraj, chairman, Southern India Mills’ Association.
G. Arulmozhi, secretary of Open End Spinning Mills’ Association, explained that textile mills used cotton as raw material and comber noil (cotton waste) was generated at the mills. The waste was purchased by open end spinners for use in their units.
Appeal to government
The comber noil prices were Rs. 68 a kg when cotton prices were Rs. 117 a kg last October. It was Rs. 78 a kg now though cotton prices were only Rs. 109. The government should ensure that there was no adulteration at ginning factories and comber noil was available at affordable prices to open end spinners throughout the year. “Our yarn goes to handloom and powerloom units to make textile products and we cannot increase yarn prices,” he said.
This news has not been edited by Apni Kheti staff and has been published from different feeds.
Source: The Hindu
