Tirupur: The textile industrialists are worried that the sudden rise in cotton price might slowdown the already dull apparel busines.
“While the cotton price reduced by around Rs 3,500 in 100 days, it increased Rs 2,000 in the past 10 days and now stands at Rs 42,000 per candy. When the marketing year (October 2018 to September 2019) started, the price opened up at Rs 46,500, which was Rs 8,000 more than the opening price of the last year,” said Prabhu Dhamodharan, secretary of Indian Texpreneurs Federation.
“We learned that many ginning factories in Telangana and Gujarat have stopped their operation as the cotton production has gone down. So, arrival of the cotton bales to Tamil Nadu markets has decreased, and resulted in sudden increase of the cotton price, which has shocked the industrialists,” Dhamodharan said. “The inflation has already increased price of warp yarn by Rs 6-7 per kg, and soon, hosiery yarn price will also go up, and subsequently, increasing prices of garments,” he added.
S Govindappan, vice-president of the South India Hosiery Manufacturers Association (SIHMA) said, “The domestic hosiery market has been already reeling under pressure, and it would be further slowing down due to general elections. If the cotton price continues to shoot up, it will directly affect the hosiery manufacturers.”
“The cotton corporation of India should safeguard interests of both farmers and industrialists. It should ensure that there is no interception from traders in the cotton trade, but in reality, the traders are manipulating the market and paving the way for price rise. The government should intervene and take steps to regulate the price,” Govindappan added.
Dhamodharan said, “The Indian Texpreneurs Federation would not ask the government to stop exports or imports of the cotton. But it should take concrete steps in increasing cotton production. While in many countries, a hectare yield 1,400kg of cotton, in India the yield is only around 500kg of cotton per hectare.”
Besides, unscientific data collection on cotton production is a bane. “The government should work on these two issues to ensure sufficient cotton supply to local market, which would help cotton sales at reasonable prices,” he added.
Published On : 15-03-2019
Source : Times of India
