Monday 23 February 2015

Sell cotton soon after harvest, farmers told

The Agro Marketing Intelligence and Business Promotion Centre (AMI&BPC) has advised farmers to sell cotton upon harvest as its price is expected to hover in the range of Rs.4,100 - 4,300 a quintal during March – April.
The price of masi pattam (summer) cotton crop would be Rs.4,300 - 4,500 a quintal during July-August, the AMI & BPC said in a price advisory. Currently, long staple cotton is ruling around Rs.4,450 – 4,700 a quintal.
The advisory, to help farmers take selling and sowing decisions, was issued based on an analysis of the cotton prices that had prevailed over the past 10 years at the Konganapuram Cooperative Marketing Society and a traders survey conducted by the back office of the AMI & BPC at the Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development Studies (CARDS), Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.
Cotton price has taken a hit owing to global factors such as decline in cotton yarn exports and lesser demand.
Until last year, China bought 60 per cent of India’s cotton but has reduced imports to support its farmers. Also, demand from mills has come down drastically due to reduced exports coupled with financial crunch. All these factors led to fall in cotton prices.
World cotton consumption is expected to grow by 2 per cent in 2015 - 16 due to a moderate improvement in global economic growth as forecast by the International Monetary Fund. However, price of polyester has fallen eroding the price of cotton.
In 2014-15, India’s cotton area and production stood at 13 million hectares and 34.62 million bales.
The Cotton Association of India (CAI) has estimated that low prices and lower demand may discourage farmers leading to reduced cotton cultivation in 2015-16 by 15-20 per cent.
The major sowing season in Tamil Nadu is January-February and August-September, the AMI & BPC said in a press release.

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