Special to Cotton Grower & Cotton International
The high-powered cabinet ministerial committee in India has decided to allow cotton exports from the country beginning November 1, 2010. The decision was reached on September 28 by the committee, which is chaired by India’s Finance Minister and includes the country’s Agriculture, Commerce and Textile ministers.
(Editor’s uppdate, September 29: The ICE December 2010 contract was down the 400-point daily limit to 101.25 today. The drop was partly blamed on India’s export decision and improving crop conditions there.)
The registration for exports will begin on October 1 with no export duty for the allowable target of 5.5 million bales (170 Kg/bale). Mr. Nayan Mirani, of Khimji Visram and Sons, Mumbai, who is also the Vice President of the Cotton Association of India spoke exclusively to Seshadri Ramkumar of Texas Tech University today from Champaign, IL, and broke the news on the decision of India’s government on cotton exports. Mr. Mirani said he was pleased with the decision of the government to allow exports, which will create certainty in the market.
Mirani said, however, he felt exports should have been allowed from October 1st as announced earlier. Mr. Mirani emphasized that India’s cotton farmers should get the price at international level. According to the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, cotton acreage during the 2010/11 season is expected to be 11 million hectares and production is expected to be 5.53 million metric tons (MT), which is a 10 percent improvement over the 2009/10 season. India is also estimated to import 0.09 million MT of cotton.