I am honoured to stand before you to address this esteemed gathering at our 101 Annual General Meeting (AGM) in my 6th year as the 14th President of the Cotton Association of India. I extend a warm welcome to each and every one of you present at this AGM. Cotton Association of India has completed 102 years of its glorious services to the cotton trade and textile industry in general and our members in particular.
The 101 Annual Report along with the Directors’ Report and audited Annual Accounts giving brief overview of various activities and financial performance of our Association for the year ended 31 March 2023 have already been circulated to you all, well in advance, as required by law .
Before we proceed with official agenda of our AGM, I would like to take this opportunity to share some of my thoughts on domestic as well as international cotton scenario.
My speech giving detailed outlook of national as well as international cotton scenario is already in your hands. However, in order to save the valuable time of our members, I will be delivering
my condensed speech.
As per the latest report of the CAl Crop Committee, this season Indian cotton crop size is estimated at 294.10 lakh bales of 170 kgs each. This is 8% lower production compared to last year and the lowest cotton production in last 15 years. Due to lower production and higher cotton consumption, our balance sheet is very tight.
Today, the biggest challenge that we have is ‘how to increase our cotton production . We are having 33% of the world’s total cotton acreage i.e. around 125 lakh hectares in the world’s total cotton acreage of 329.52 lakh hectares. This year, our yields are expected to be about 396 kgs of lint per hectare i.e 2.33 bales of 170 kgs. each per hectare which is very low compared to the world’s average yield of 675 kg lint per hectare.
In 2013-14, our cotton yield went upto 572 kgs. per hectare. However, from there, our cotton yield has now reduced by almost 30%. The main reason of this reduction in our cotton yield is that our BT seed technology is very old. We now need new seeds. Climate change and Elnino effect are also hurting our cotton crop in a big way as our 73% area is non irrigated. Also attack of pink ballworms is reducing our yields.
If our textile industry runs with full 100% capacity, the industry will require about 414 lakh bales as per the state-wise cotton consumption survey conducted by CAI. Against this, our production is only 294 lakh bales. This is hurting the mills and they are not able to run with 100% capacity throughout the year. Further, due to 11% duty on cotton imports in India, mills are unable to import cotton to run its operations with full capacity.
Due to favourable policy of giving subsidy for expansion to mills by various state governments, many mills are increasing their spindleage – to increase their spinning capacity.
Due to this, every year, there is an increase of 15-20 lakh spindles in India every year. If this trend continues, then within a year, our cotton consumption capacity will go upto 450 lakh bales per year and if we fail to increase the cotton consumption and fail to remove import duty, it will bring disaster.
At present our cotton markets are bottomed out at Rs.54,000/- per candy, and if price goes down further, then CCI will have to procure more cotton on MSP. Around 95 lakh bales cotton has already arrived till December end and we expect this arrival will cross 100 lakh bales.
Due to unfavourable rain patterns this year, our cotton yields are reduced by about 15-20% and also November December rain has spoiled the quality of cotton. Due to this, our farmers have suffered double loss. Firstly, yields are less and secondly prevailing rates are below MSP.
Particularly in north India, farmers are getting very low prices at Rs.4000-6500 per quintal. With lower yield and lower rate, I think next year the overall cotton sowing may reduce by altealst minimum 10% mainly in north and central India. In south India, cotton sowing has already reduced by, an average, 18% this year and I have a fear that if the cotton sowing will reduce, our cotton production may go down further.
In India, we recently held ICAC Cotton Conference from 2nd to 5th December at Jio World Convention Centre, BKC (Mumbai). This is one of the best venues of Asia. CAl was the co-host of this event alongwith Government of India, CCI & CITI. This event was very much successful and it was a proud moment for all of us having more than 150 international delegates to give us knowledgeable panel discussions mainly on how to increase Indian cotton yields.
In the month of October, CAl organised a cotton conference in Hyderabad with the support of Telangana Ginners Association. This Conference was also very successful and more than 800 delegates attended this Hyderabad Conference. Till late evening, more than 500 delegates were listening very peacefully to the panel discussion. This was a new experience to us as first time in recent years, CAl organized such a Conference in South India.
As you all are aware CAl is giving daily rates through its 4 weekly committees. Recently, CAl has also started giving daily arrivals to the trade. I congratulate all the 4 weekly Daily Rates Committee Chairmen & 80+ all India members for these new achievements.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
During my tenure as the CAl President, I have received whole-hearted support from the Ministries of Textiles, Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, Commerce & Industry, Finance, Office of the Textile Commissioner, Textiles Committee, Cotton Corporation of India, Directorate of Cotton Development, Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology, Central Institute for Cotton Research, Mumbai Port Authority and the Bombay Textile Research Association. I convey our sincere thanks to them all.
I sincerely thank all our members, my colleagues on the CAl Board, members of all Committees of the Association, upcountry cotton trade associations and cooperative cotton marketing societies for their active participation in the decision making process at the CAL I was also fortunate enough to have received invaluable support and guidance from elders from time to time for which I sincerely thank them.
I also wish to convey our sincere thanks to my fellow office bearers, Shri Bhupendra Singh Rajpal, Shri Vinay Kotak, Shri Arun Sekhsaria and Shri Shyam Makharia for their invaluable support and cooperation.
I also thank the Secretary and other staff of the Association for discharging their duties diligently and with a sense of responsibility. Last but not the least, 1sincerely thank the press and media for excellent coverage to the activities of the Association throughout the year.
