India Allocates 1.9M Bales for Export by Feb. 25

The Indian government has made a final decision regarding the cotton that was approved for export last year, but never left the country: All of the remaining 1.9 million bales (170 kg) will be shipped between Jan. 25 and Feb. 25. Officials determined that the previous estimate of 2.5 million unshipped bales was too high by 30 percent.

On Jan. 10, India’s Ministry of Commerce allocated the 1.9 million bales to exporters, but it put some fairly stringent conditions on its approval:
• Companies must finish all necessary procedures related to the export process by Jan. 25.
• Any company that fails to complete that process will have its approval retracted, and the cotton will be reallocated to other companies that applied for permission to export cotton.
• The physical exporting must take place between Jan. 25 and Feb. 25. Companies that fail to physically move the bales out of the country by the end of that period will be banned from future export allocations and will be subject to a fine and potentially penal action. That fine ranges in size from a minimum of $222 to a maximum of five times the value of the shipment.

Every company that properly submitted an application for export approval received permission to ship at least 500 bales, sources say. Of the 928 India cotton exporters that have secured new export allocations, 29 have registered at least 10,000 bales. Those 29 cotton exporters account for 52% of the total quota, with the highest allocation (100,000 bales) going to D.R.B. Commodities.