CITI seeks release of cotton bought at MSP

In a letter to Anand Sharma, union minister of textiles, the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) has sought for immediate release of cotton procured by various government agencies through Minimum Support Price (MSP) operations.

SV Arumugam, Chairman, CITI, has said that cotton prices had increased steeply because of an artificial shortage of cotton in the market which is created partly by hoarding of cotton by traders and partly by non release of procured cotton by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) and other procurement agencies.

"Part of the increased price realisation would go to farmers who still have cotton with them. But a substantial portion of the crop has already been sold by farmers. There are reports that traders are holding cotton in order to create an artificial shortage and push up prices further before they off-load the quantities. The industry is finding it difficult to purchase cotton at the current prices," Arumugam stated in the letter.