The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry has brought cotton and cotton waste under the restricted list for exports through a notification dated May 21, 2010.
Thus, export licence is now needed to export cotton or cotton waste. During the cotton season (October 2009 to September 2010), 85.26 lakh bales of raw cotton were registered for exports from October 2009 to April 15, 2010, and of this, 73.58 lakh bales were shipped. On April 19, the Union Ministry of Textiles suspended registration of cotton and cotton waste for exports.
According to Secretary General of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry D. K. Nair, only a negligible quantity is expected to be permitted for further export from the current crop as the Group of Ministers had decided last month that a closing stock of 50 lakh bales should be maintained.
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Cotton availability is likely to go up in the domestic market and prices will come down. This will, however, not affect farmers as most of the cotton production had already come to the market this season, he said.