With cotton prices spiralling to more than ₹ 90,000 a candy, prices of cotton textile products are expected to surge.
In Tiruppur, manufacturers of basic garments increased the prices by 15 % in December and are likely to go in for another price revision shortly. “Cotton prices are going up almost on a daily basis. But, garment manufacturers cannot do so. Now, there is no option but to increase the prices again,” said an industry source.
Raja M. Shanmugham, president of Tiruppur Exporters’ Association, said that between October 2021 and April 2022, cost of cotton-based garments increased 15 %. “Overseas customers are not willing to offer any further hike in prices as they had already increased the prices earlier,” he said.
Industry sources here point out that while cotton prices increased 58% to 60% between last October and this month, yarn prices had gone up by 33 %. Price of Bunny variety cotton cost ₹61,000 last October and is ₹96,500 a candy now while price of Shankar 6 variety of cotton increased from ₹59,500 (October 2021) to ₹ 95,200 (April 2022). Price of cotton yarn increased from ₹331 a kg to ₹441 during the same period.
J. Thulasidharan, president of Indian Cotton Federation, called for measures to control holding of cotton stocks. According to reports, 240 lakh bales of cotton have come to the market since last October. The total production expected is 340 lakh bales. So the remaining quantity should come into the market, he said.
Meanwhile, members of the National Committee on Textiles and Clothing met Union Textile Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday and sought duty free import of cotton. The levy of 11 % import duty on cotton is affecting the global competitiveness of the Indian textile and clothing industry as cotton traders are adopting an import parity pricing policy, they said.
