Agriculture minister opposes govt’s decision to ban cotton exports

07 Mar 2012 Evaluate

Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has strongly opposed the recent ban on cotton exports by the government. Pawar said, ‘I was kept in the dark on the issue. It's highly objectionable that the decision of banning cotton export was taken without consulting the agriculture ministry. I will take up this issue with the prime minister to lift the ban.’ A panel of ministers is scheduled to meet on March 9 to review the ban, supply and demand situation of the fibre in the domestic market.

As per Pawar, the ban is uncalled since India is estimated to have a record production of cotton this year. Also farmers are already facing low prices and the ban will only lead to a further drop in prices by increasing domestic supply. The Cotton Association of India too has disagreed with the ban saying that it will hurt domestic prices and also damage India’s reputation in the international market.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) issued a notification on March 5 prohibiting export of cotton till further orders with immediate effect. The government justified the ban stating that cotton exports for the year had already crossed their permissible limit and the registration for exports were indicating that it could cross 100 lakh bales by mid March. Certain registrations were also indicating towards a tendency of hoarding in the exporters.

Further estimates of domestic production of cotton had been revised downwards by the Ministry of Agriculture for the current year. Hence in view of the reduced availability and reduced carry forward figure for 2011-12, the government decided to ban future exports of cotton.

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