-Cotton Textile Industry urges Govt!
Members of the Cotton Textile Industry have said that the continuous hike in cotton and cotton yarn has severely affected the ready-made garment exports, and they have urged the Government to announce duty-free import of 40 lakh bales immediately to stabilize the cotton price and create a level playing field for the industry.
In a joint Press Meet held on Tuesday at SIMA Conference Hall, Coimbatore, Rajkumar, Chairman, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), Ravi Sam, Chairman, The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) and Raja M Shanmugam, President, Tirupur Exporters’ Association (TEA) addressed the Press and briefed regarding the grave situation being faced by the entire cotton textile value chain across the country.
They opined that the cotton exports might exceed 50 lakh bales, as the countries like Bangladesh with lesser lead time and logistics costs would prefer to use Indian cotton to meet the increased demand.
They said that the export of cotton yarn, fabrics, made-ups and readymade garments of all textiles has increased by 42% and 16% respectively during the period October 2021 to February 2022 when compared to the same period last year. They have said that the country consumes around 1/3rd cotton for meeting the export orders and the balance 2/3rd cotton for meeting the domestic demand.
They further said that unless the global competitiveness is enhanced by removing the 11% import duty and stabilizing the cotton price, the highly labour-intensive ready-made garment cluster would face a severe crisis. They shared that orders from US-based brands are also declining due to a steep increase in cotton prices.
They have said that the spinning currently has only 40 days stock (41 lakh bales) as against 3 to 6 months’ stock level maintained by spinning mills during any cotton season at the end of March, as over 90% of the cotton arrive the market during December to March. They have said that only around 240 lakh bales of cotton have arrived in the market as against 320 lakh bales that should have arrived by this time.
They expressed concerns that if the cotton issues are not addressed immediately, our competing countries like Bangladesh, China, Vietnam would import Indian cotton and grab the Indian share in the global market. They have urged the Government to announce duty-free import of 40 lakh bales immediately to stabilize the cotton price and create a level playing field for the industry to sustain its export performance, financial viability and livelihoods of over 30 million people directly employed in the cotton textile value chain.