Suspend cotton exports to help textiles ind: FIEO

Exporters today appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to suspend export of raw cotton saying rising prices of the commodity has become a double whammy for textiles industry, hit by the global demand slump.

"The cotton textile industry was saddled with high cotton cost, miserably failed to compete with the multinational cotton traders and ultimately end up paying very high prices to the same traders even for the domestic requirement," Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said.

Cotton prices, as per the industry, has increased due to booking of the commodity for imports by international traders. They expect the cotton supply in the global markets would fall short by 15 lakh bales (a bale equals to 170 kg).

Shankar-6 variety of cotton was selling at Rs 25,000 a candy (356 kg) against Rs 23,000 a candy last year.

Apparel, made-ups and fabric exporters requires cotton yarn at competitive rate to compete with China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, it said.

"Suspending cotton exports temporarily will help textile sector to sustain in the global export market," FIEO said.

Over 10 lakh bales from the current year's crop have been registered with the Textile Commissioner for exports, while another 10 lakh bales are with traders for registration, industry experts said.