| Reeling under the serious recession
and contraction of demand on the one hand and a
complete impasse on the supply side due to steep
MSPs leading to drying up of supply line, there
is a wide despondency amongst Indian cotton exporters.
The international cotton prices on NYBOT have crashed
to as low as US Cents 39 per pound and the global
demand of cotton has suffered serious set back.
While India exported about 30 lakh bales of cotton
during the period 22nd October 2007 to 11th December
2007, the exports during the month of October
this year are barely 50,000 bales and exports
during the month of November 2008 are not likely
to be more than 2 lakh bales. When compared to
last year, the cotton exports this season have
dropped by 95%.
During the last cotton season, India exported
over 1 crore bales valued at about Rs. 15,000
crores. As per trade sources, if current crisis
situation continues like this, India will not
be able to export even 10% of last years volume.
This will also result in heavy loss of foreign
exchange to the Country.
Cotton Association of India strongly appeals
to the Government of India to take strong and
immediate remedial measures and introduce appropriate
subsidy and also allow DEPB of atleast 5% to enable
Indian cotton exporters to compete in the international
markets.
India has been the most competitive and comparative
cotton producer till April / May 2008 and now
it is the most expensive producer in the world.
It is imperative that immediate relief is granted
to Indian cotton exporters through subsidy / DEPB
to save the cotton exports from the present crisis;
otherwise Indian cotton exports would suffer irreversible
damage and loss of marketing opportunities.
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