The Central Government on Monday said that the Cotton Advisory Board (CAB) had projected cotton production at 340 lakh bales in the 2012-13 season and exports around 81 lakh bales.
The cotton season runs from October to September. “The CAB in its meeting on April 17 estimated a crop size of 340 lakh bales (170 kg each), consumption of 270 lakh bales and exports of 81 lakh bales,” Minister of State for Textiles Panabaaka Lakshmi said in a written reply to Parliament.
The Minister said there was adequate cotton available for domestic consumption. Cotton prices would remain stable and no supply side disruptions had been observed, she said. In the last cotton season, the natural fibre production stood at 352 lakh bales and exports at 127 lakh bales.
On whether the government was considering restricting export of cotton or cotton yarn, Ms. Lakshmi said cotton and cotton yarn markets were now functioning in an orderly manner. On the hank yarn obligation, she said, this was a mechanism to ensure adequate availability of hank yarn to handloom weavers at reasonable prices. The existing Hank Yarn Packing notification prescribes that every producer of yarn who packs yarn for civil consumption shall pack 40 per cent of yarn in hank form on a quarterly basis and not less than 80 per cent of the hank yarn packed shall be of counts 80s and below. “There is no change in the present policy on Hank Yarn Obligation,” she added.
