The Committee on Cotton Production and Consumption (COCPC), the erstwhile Cotton Advisory Board, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India Chaired by the Textile Commissioner and comprising of all the stakeholders of the cotton textile value chain including Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), Ministry of Agriculture and Department of Agriculture of all the major cotton growing States has been periodically estimating the cotton balance sheet and publishing the position of cotton supply (opening stock, crop and import), demand (mill consumption, non-textile consumption and export) and closing stock for every season. The COCPC makes more realistic estimates after a detailed deliberation based on the estimates given by various bodies representing the textile value chain and the primary data collected by the Office of Textile Commissioner from the industry. The Department of Agriculture furnishes the actual area under cotton cultivation and the cotton crop estimate to the COCPC based on the inputs given by all the cotton producing States.
Dr S K Sundararaman, Chairman, The Southern India Mills Association (SIMA) has advised the actual users of cotton especially the cotton textile mills to rely only on the estimates published by the Office of the Textile Commissioner, Ministry of Textiles based on the recommendations made by the COCPC periodically and ignore the press statements or information given by any other body. He has advised the mills through the earlier press release to avoid panic buying when the cotton price suddenly increased from the level Rs.55,300 to Rs.61,500 per candy of 355 kgs during the second fortnight of February as the cotton supply position is very comfortable. He reiterates the same, pointing out that the International Cotton Advisory Committee has also stated that the higher cotton prices are being driven by speculation and not based on fundamentals.
SIMA Chairman has stated that the COCPC at its second meeting for the cotton season 2023-24 held on 14th March 2024 has projected the opening stock as 61 lakh bales, crop as 323 lakh bales, imports as 12 lakh bales, mill consumption as 301 lakh bales, non-mill consumption as 16 lakh bales, export as 27 lakh bales and predicted a comfortable closing stock of 52 lakh bales. He has further stated that as these estimates are more scientific, he has advised all the stakeholders in the textile value chain to rely on CoCPC data relating to cotton. He has again advised the mills to be cautious while procuring cotton for inventory purpose.
SIMA Chairman has stated that though Indian domestic cotton prices had relevant corelation with market especially ICE, Cotlook “A’ and MCX, the speculators intermittently hike the prices, artificially creating high volatility, severely impacting the performance of the textile industry.
Dr. Sundararaman has appreciated the Cotton Corporation of India Limited (CCI) for enforcing fair average quality norms and also Kasturi Cotton Bharat, the newly launched Indian cotton brand. He also lauded the efforts taken by the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL) for implementing the process to trace the origin of the fibre and steering the Kasturi Cotton Bharat brand promotion programme. He has hoped that the brand Kasturi, would command high premium and advised the mills to join hands in building the Kasturi cotton brand.
SIMA Chief has highly appreciated the CCI for giving priority to actual users of cotton, especially the MSME units. Though there was a panic situation, now the fear factor started vanishing due to the timely intervention of the CCI and its encouraging trading policies, says Dr.Sundararaman.
