Siddhartha Rajagopal, Executive Director of the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil), said many spinning mills should focus on Kasturi cotton. Within five years, the government wants 10% of cotton grown in India to be tested and certified as Kasturi cotton, according to Rajagopal. The government will help with this as well through the cotton mini-mission. The Kasturi cotton certification will be given to 1.12 lakh bales of cotton during the 2024–2025 cotton season. The Cotton Corporation of India will be the primary storage facility for this cotton.
Texprocil is engaged with international brands to utilise Kasturi cotton because it has quality institutional traceability. Kasturi cotton has been used by some Indian textile producers to make shirts and towels. The brand carries a premium price and there are standards related to extra long staple cotton. Textile mills can test and get certified if they can provide details of the growers/ginner used for the cotton.
S.K. Sundararaman, the head of the Southern India Mills’ Association, stated that when textile mills witness proof of the cotton’s worth, its use will rise during a meeting organised by Texprocil for members of the textile association.
The Indian Cotton Federation’s secretary, Nishant Asher, stated that clothing and manufactured brands should be the source of the draw.
The participants also talked about the improvement of best practices by farmers so that traceability starts from the farmers and that the short fibres in the cotton significantly decrease before the cotton is certified as Kasturi.
