S.K. Sundararaman, chairman of the Southern India Mills Association (SIMA), stated that value addition should be the main focus of the cotton industry as a whole in order to improve returns for cotton growers.
The Indian Cotton Federation and the Indian Cotton Association Limited, Bathinda, organised a two-day biannual cotton conference titled Cotton – The Sustainable Fibre of Future in Coimbatore. Sundararaman stated that the government and the textile industry aimed to reach a total business size of US $ 350 billion by 2030. The country’s cotton production needs to double to 600 lakh bales annually in order for the sector to expand to that extent.
There were some basic structural changes taking place in the sector. A chunk of the demand for cotton was being replaced by the rapidly advancing synthetic fibre industry. Nonetheless, consumers were paying more attention to sustainability, the environment, and traceability. Thus, “moving up the value chain is imperative,” he declared.
The nation’s cotton industry as a whole ought to demonstrate to the world that it is growing and using sustainable cotton while also getting more money for that cotton. He added that the cotton growers would also profit from this.
According to Atul S. Ganatra, president of the Cotton Association of India, textile mills in north India use roughly 90 lakh bales of cotton annually, while those in the south and central regions use 125 lakh and nearly 115 lakh bales, respectively. 360 lakh bales of cotton were needed annually for the textile mills to operate at maximum capacity. At the moment, 85 per cent of the spinning mills’ capacity was being used. He suggested that in order to prevent a shortage of cotton, trade associations and businesses should work together to lobby the federal government to forbid states from providing incentives to the industry to boost spindleage.
