Break The Loom
- Crop failures globally have resulted in international cotton prices shooting up to $775 a bale, up from $387 in 2010
- Textile ministry has put an export ceiling at 55 lakh bales
- Export clearances are given on a first-come-first-served basis, leading to favouritism
- The ceiling has denied cotton growers from making profits through exports
- Farmers in Andhra feel the ceiling brings down domestic prices further, which benefits only TN-based cloth mills
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Cotton farmers in Andhra are crying foul, and what’s got their bale, so to speak, is the rigid ceiling on exports this year imposed by Union textile minister Dayanidhi Maran. Cotton growers and exporters argue that the textile lobby in Tamil Nadu, Maran’s home state, is robbing them of hard-earned profits and at a time when there is unprecedented demand in the international market due to climate disasters in China, Pakistan,...
