Gujarat Leads the Way
March 23, 2011 If the Indian state of Gujarat were itself a country, it would rank fourth worldwide in cotton production. Only China, the United States, and the rest of India produce more cotton than Gujarat, which accounts for a third of India’s total production, leading all states.
Once part of the ancient Indus Valley civilization, where the world’s first evidence of cotton yarn has been discovered, Gujarat has a cotton tradition that began more than 4,000 years ago. Today, this booming agriculturally based state has a reputation for innovation, entrepreneurship, and a strong work ethic, which, along with favorable growing conditions, has elevated it to the forefront of the Indian cotton industry.
Of India’s eight significant cotton-producing states, Gujarat ranks first in total production, estimated at more than 10 million Indian bales (170 kg) in 2010/11. In yield, Gujarat also ranks first with about 700 kg/hectare. Averaging barely one hectare per farmer, as many as 3 million farmers produce cotton in Gujarat, according to N.M. Sharma, managing director of Gujcot, the state’s Cooperative Cotton Federation. Gujcot itself serves 550,000 Gujarati cotton farmers as its members.
Gujarat’s bustling commercial center of Ahmedabad, with a population of 4 million, is one of the world’s fastest-growing cities, according to a recent Forbes report. Its per capita income is double that of the rest of India.
Until the 1980s, Ahmedabad was known as “the Manchester of the East” for its plethora of composite textile mills, about 130 in all. Many of those mills, though, could not then survive the new competition that quickly arose with the advent and unrestricted market growth of power mills.
Denim Is Having a Dramatic Impact
Faced with the question of survival, Arvind – one of India’s long-established mills – decided on a new strategy (see story on page 40). In 1984, Arvind became India’s first denim producer. Today, Ahmedabad is India’s denim capital. Its mills, led by Arvind’s current annual production of 120 million meters of denim, now produce about half of India’s total output of 650 million meters.
“Denim is a hotcake item now,” says Ashish Shah, managing director of Aarvee Denims & Exports. Aarvee, also of Ahmedabad, is number two in Indian denim, with a current capacity of 60 million meters (using 135,000 bales), which will be expanding to 84 million meters by June.
“The big players are looking to India,” says Shah, who began supplying denim to Walmart just eight months ago. “Walmart came to us; we didn’t go there.”
Shah says denim producers in Ahmedabad and the rest of India are expanding, and new players are coming in. He projects Indian denim production to approach one billion meters within the next 18 months.
Dr. P.R. Roy, a pioneer in Indian denim and current president of fibre2fashion, projects that Gujarat’s denim production will reach 400 million meters by the end of 2011.
Much of the cotton feeding these denim mills is short-staple V-797, mostly produced in neighboring, predominantly rain-fed Maharashtra state, which is number two in India in cotton production (but tops in land devoted to cotton with about 4 million hectares).
Most of Gujarat’s 2.6 million hectares of cotton farming are devoted to growing its famous long-staple Shankar-6. Prized worldwide for its high luster and other attractive attributes such as strength, micronaire and uniformity, Shankar-6 is grown on irrigated land in Gujarat.
According to Sharma, Gujcot is now working with the state government and Department of Agriculture to trademark Shankar-6. The name could then only apply to Gujarat-grown fiber. “You can feel the difference [of Shankar-6],” says Pranav Amratlal, Chairman of Vama Group, based in Ahmedabad. “The luster of the fabric is different,” he says, attributing that to Gujarat’s black, mineral-rich soil.
“When you are talking about cotton, you should never forget Gujarat,” Amratlal declares.
GET THE NEWSLETTER TODAY!
