NEW DELHI: Organic cotton prices have increased by 8 per cent to 12 per cent in the past two months and may remain firm as buying by the domestic medical textile sector and the overseas market has picked up, trade bodies said.
“The sale of organic cotton and yarn has increased significantly and supplies are limited with ginners leading to firm prices in the last two months. There is also demand from Bangladesh and Vietnam, ” said Ashwin Chandra, chairman of the Southern India Mills Association. He said that in the short term, the prices may further increase.
Organic cotton prices have increased by 8 per cent to 12 per cent to Rs 39,000 candy of 356/kg each, he said. Also, prices have increased by over 15 per cent to Rs 210 per kg for export quality 30 carded yarn, he added.
Demand has increased from medical textiles sector which is making surgical gowns, masks and others and we expect it to remain strong in the long run, keeping prices firm, said T Rajkumar, chairman of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry. “We anticipate the acreage under organic cotton to have increased this year by 5 per cent, owing to the rise in prices,” he said.
With the season at the fag end, the supplies in the domestic market was less and traders and millers were shying away from selling in anticipation of an increase in prices, said Mahesh Sharad, President, Indian Cotton Association. Harvest of cotton will begin by end of October- November.
Usually organic cotton fetches a premium of Rs 1000 per candy in comparison to Bt cotton of similar quality, but currently companies were paying a premium of over Rs 2500 per candy in Maharashtra and Gujarat mantis, said millers.
Area under organic cotton in India is around three lakh hectares which is 2 per cent of the total area of 130 lakh hectare under cotton cultivation. The production is around 7.2 lakh bales of 170 kg each which is 2 per cent of the total estimated production of 360 lakh bales, according to the industry.
Source:-economictimes.indiatimes.com