Government to revoke ban on cotton exports

12 Mar 2012 Evaluate

The government has decided to lift the ban on cotton exports that was imposed last week. The roll back ends a week of protests from within the government and opposition. The Commerce, Industry and Textiles Minister, Anand Sharma, said in a statement that ‘keeping in view the facts, the interests of the farmers, interest of the industry, trade, a balanced view has been considered by the (Empowered) Group of Ministers to roll back the ban’.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), which is under the commerce department, had banned cotton exports on March 5 on the grounds that the domestic stocks of the fibre had fallen below recommended levels. As per DGFT, the country had already shipped 10 lakh bales more than the exportable surplus which was impacting domestic availability. Also the domestic production of cotton had been revised downwards by the Ministry of Agriculture for the current year which could lead to further shortages.

However, the ban had brought sharp reactions from the traders and farmers as they claimed that domestic prices were falling due to the ban. Cotton prices crashed to levels around Rs 3,000 a quintal from the Rs 4,200 last month. In some cases, farmers reportedly even sold at Rs 2,500 a quintal. Moreover, the cotton export ban followed registration of over 12.5 million bales (of 170 kg each) of cotton for exports.

The agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar also opposed the ban strongly and was upset that it had been imposed without informing him. Further, the ban had brought the cotton trade to a halt in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka. China, which is India’s largest importer of cotton, had also termed the ban ‘irresponsible’.

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