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Vemulawada legislator Ch. Ramesh Babu and Joint Collector Yasmeen Basha inaugurated Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) procurement centres in Vemulawda and Sircilla agricultural marketyards respectively on Monday. On the occasion, the Joint Collector inspected the functioning of moisture content checking machines. She also urged farmers to get their produce cleaned and dried up for securing MSP of Rs. 4,320 per quintal.
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The exports of readymade garments from India in September 2017 was recorded at Rs 10,707 crore, up 24.93 per cent over exports of Rs 8,570 crore in the same month of previous year, according to the trade data compiled by Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF). The rise in exports is a boost to the domestic manufacturing value chain of textiles.
The growth in apparel exports was observed after a decline for two months. The robust retail sales in the festive season will also increase the domestic market demand in the entire manufacturing value chain, according to ITF analysis. The association is hoping to achieve the growth target in the remaining months of 2017 with improvement in volume of exports and domestic demand.
During the month, exports of man-made fibre (MMF) textiles, including yarn, fabrics, and made-ups, also witnessed a plunge of 20.49 per cent. The exports totaled to Rs 2,996 crore as against the exports of Rs 2,487 crore in September 2016.
For the reported period, the exports of cotton textiles were worth Rs 5,911 crore, up 11.23 per cent as compared to Rs 5,315 crore for the same period in the previous year. “The exports of cotton textiles are increasing consistently and we expect similar performance jump in October 2017,” said ITF.
The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) has revoked the closure orders issued on 23 dyeing units attached to Eastern Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) last month following indiscriminate discharge of untreated effluents into Manickapuramputhur irrigation tank.
The issue of discharge of untreated effluents came to light after people in the locality complained about raw effluents getting discharged into the irrigation tank through a feeder canal.
Subsequently, the units were sealed by the TNPCB officials on September 12 as prima facie inquiry itself revealed that there was a leak in one of the pipelines that took the effluents from member dyeing units to the Eastern CETP.
It should be noted that Madras High Court had ordered the dyeing units in Tirupur knitwear cluster to comply with zero liquid discharge norms in effluent treatment process.
TNPCB District Environmental Engineer K. Elankumaran told The Hindu that the effluents got discharged into the water body following an accidental break of one of the pipelines which took the effluents to the CETP.
“The damaged pipeline has now been replaced under the supervision of our officials. Since its operation effectiveness is satisfactory, the closure orders were revoked,” he said.
With cotton yarn export dropping for three years in a row, industry bodies have demanded export incentives and trade policy interventions.
They’ve given a detailed analysis to the commerce and industry ministry, showing the $3.5 billion export segment is shrinking. The segment makes up more than a tenth of India’s total textile export and is one of the few segments there in which the country had historically enjoyed an advantage until recently.
In 2016-17, the export of cotton yarn fell 7.7 per cent. Apart from trade reasons, the spectre of a five per cent Goods and Services Tax on both yarn and fabric have hit the hitherto untaxed industry hard. A recent report from ratings agency ICRA says the rupee’s rise over the past year, with high raw material prices in the past six to nine months, had disadvantaged the industry.
Also, with domestic demand not growing, investment into spinning mills have stopped, pushing up manufacturing prices, exporters claim.
As a result, industry bodies have asked that cotton yarn be allowed benefits under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme and Interest Equalisation Scheme, something man-made yarn already gets. They’ve also raised the issue of drawback rates recently being revised.
On the trade front, experts and exporters have called for policy interventions with major buyers of Indian cotton yarn, such as China. In 2016-17, of the $3.3 billion of the commodity’s export, a little over $1 bn was headed to China.
“India is disproportionately dependent on China for exports. But, export orders have continued to decrease over the past couple of years due to Vietnam and Bangladesh advancing on the Chinese market with more than a four per cent tariff advantage due to trade agreements and cheaper labour costs,” says S K Jain, chairman of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry.
These nations have increasingly encroached on India’s turf in the categories of apparel and home furnishings over the past couple of years in America and the European Union.
“Vietnam recently leveraged its growing position as a hub of textile manufacturing, as well as trade concessions under the China-Asean free trade agreement, to capture the Chinese market,” says a Delhi-based trade expert.
Cotton yarn is also exported to Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt and Korea, all centres of textile manufacturing. Interestingly, export to Bangladesh and Pakistan have risen. Of this, shipments to India’s western neighbor saw a significant rise over the past two years despite political and military standoffs. The $213 million of yarn to Pakistan in 2016-17 was a 62 per cent jump, over the the 45 per cent export rise the previous year. Only raw cotton was a larger shipment group to that country. Both nations are traditional cotton producing, have unreliable production cycles and have seen increasing attacks by pesticide-resistant strains of insects over four years.
Cotton growers on the South Plains have been battling weather all season, so a clear and warm October would come as a blessing.
The forecast looks good, but fingers are still crossed.
More recently the issue was the two weeks starting in late September with cool temperatures and heavy cloud cover. Still, if October stays warm and sunny then cotton growers, on average, are expecting a good year. So long as a freeze doesn’t come early, highs in the 70s and 80s are exactly what farmers need.
“It has been been a roller coaster,” said Steve Verett, executive vice president of the Plains Cotton Growers. “But what I’m hearing from most folks is that we’re still in pretty good shape … people are saying it’s not going to be that big giant crop we may have thought it was going to be, but it’s still going to be a very good crop. That’s the best way I know to sum it up.”
Verett looked at some numbers, and said farmers in the 40-plus counties that make up the Plains Cotton Growers’ produced an average of 3.65 million bales of cotton a year in the past decade. The latest projection Verett saw for this year had the high plains producing 5.12 million bales. Verett said some growers are having a difficult year, no question, but production as a whole should be better than average.
Those cooler temperatures in weeks past delayed the maturity of cotton, said Wayne Keeling, an agronomist with Texas AgriLife Extension Service in Lubbock. Although unfortunate, he said, it’s not that unusual for this time of year — but for farmers who had to plant late or replant, this cool spell came at a time when they really needed sun.
“Generally you don’t get that many cloudy days together, but again, I think on the early crop that wasn’t too negative,” said Keeling. “By now you pretty much have all the bolls you’re going to make and you just want to mature those out, mature the fiber in those bolls. When you get cloudy days and cooler temperatures, you just slow that boll development. The fact that we’re getting so late in the season, it’s hard to make that up.”
With a warm October leading into harvest, Keeling said, for most their cotton should reach a good growth point.
Barry Evans, a cotton grower in Swisher County, said this has been his experience.
“Overall we got a good crop in the ground,” said Evans. “We’ll be OK. We just won’t have those top-end grades like we did last year. We missed those heat units when we typically get them, but we’re a long way from a wreck.”
Seth Byrd, a cotton specialist at Lubbock’s Texas AgriLife Extension Service, isn’t just blaming this recent weather. He said it’s been a challenge for farmers all year.
Byrd said weather was a little too cool around planting time at the beginning of May, and it was followed by a hot period with rough wind. July was good with rain and sunlight, but in August, Byrd said, that rain just kept coming. The rain came with little sunlight, which Byrd said was a challenge. Then in late September, cloud cover remained for several weeks.
“From the start of this season, from the time we planted, we’ve been battling just to stay on track,” said Byrd. “People planted late, people replanted, and we had late emergence all because of the weather … when you limit light temperature, you really limit the amount of growth and development you can do. You can’t build that fiber, you can’t build that fruit-load, you can’t fill bolls when you don’t have sunlight and heat.”
According to information from the Lubbock National Weather, only .58 inch of rain fell on Lubbock County in May, which is when farmers needed that original moisture during planting. Then in July Lubbock received 5.84 inches of rain, which is 3.93 inches above averages, and in August received 4.85 inches, which is 2.94 inches above average. This doesn’t take into account sunlight, and Byrd said the heat accumulation was below average in August.
Circumstances for each grower vary — this year maybe more so than others. A dry planting season followed by wind and heavy rain scattered throughout the South Plains forced some growers to replant at different times. Continuous cool temperatures in the northern Panhandle appear to have essentially ended the growing season early, while other growers further east in the northern Panhandle and in lower elevations have reportedly had good weather. Scattered weather events have impacted growers differently.
Call it luck in location.
Doug Hlavaty is a cotton farmer in the Lubbock area who said he lost nearly a third of his cotton crop, about 1,600 acres, due to hail and strong wind he was hit with in early July. Hlavaty then planted corn in that high-impacted area.
Despite that early setback, Hlavaty said, the cotton seems to be coming in alright.
“The cotton that we kept looks pretty good,” he said. “We still have some thin places that won’t be as good as we thought, but overall we should make more than we did last year. But we made an average crop last year while a lot of people made a really good crop.”
Byrd said the optimism right now is coming from the October forecast, which is showing highs in the 70s and 80s.
“Right now we’ve actually got probably the best conditions we’ve had in a while to mature some bolls,” said Byrd. “What I’m telling folks is to take advantage of these warm days. If you need to mature bolls, hold off. Let’s let the weather do a little work. If you need to spray a harvest aid, do it while we’ve got the good weather. We don’t know how long this is going to last, so we need to take advantage of it while it’s here.”
Hlavaty was on his way to spray harvest aid Friday afternoon when he spoke to A-J Media.
What would be bad for farmers is if a hard freeze came earlier than expected — the general rule of thumb in Lubbock is that the first freeze typically happens around Halloween.
“If you had a killing freeze or a hard freeze tomorrow night or next week, we’d be in trouble,” Byrd said last week. “We’d not like to see that. We’d like to see some days to get some bolls open and get some fiber to mature.”
Darren Hudson, professor of agriculture and applied economics at Texas Tech, said he expects an average to an above-average yield. Nationally, he said the cotton yield may come in higher than it has in a decade.
“It’s a normal year, which is to say it’s very inconsistent across the area,” said Huston. “That’s typical. We get so much variability in weather across the area — who had moisture when, that kind of thing. Some areas had more weed pressure than others, or bug pressure, things like that. It’s largely just moisture and wind, especially in the early season.”
IT & Handlooms Minister KT Rama Rao today said Kakatiya Mega Textiles Park will become one of the biggest apparel parks in the country andWarangal to become another financial capital of Telangana as part of decentralization process. “We plan to spend Rs 667 crore in first phase for the park which on becoming operational will provide 1.20 lakh jobs and produce all sorts of clothes from one place in Telangana.
The minister launched a logo of the Textiles Park that resembles the famous Warangal Arch and had a look at DPR Map along with Deputy Chief Minister Kadian Srihari and others. KTR came here in a helicopter and inspected the arrangements for the proposed park at Geesukonda near Shayampet.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is expected to lay the foundation for Textile Park on October 22 and will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with 12 companies. The park will be a jewel in the crown of Telangana and give more employment to women-folk, he said. “The entire picture of Warangal will take a positive change of rapid growth as the Textile Park will be built in an eco-friendly manner”, he added.
Stating that the State government started allotting funds in its budget for the municipalities, he said the park will give more work and better salaries for the workers. “Skilled labour will be coming to work in this park. We are trying to produce a wide ranging of clothes of all sorts as to give a very a tough fight to national and international cloth and apparel companies”, KTR asserted. “In addition to get a deal with Coimbatore Textile Company to set up a Textile College at the Park here and we will get a tie up with NIFT to encourage Fashion Technology”. KTR also said that the park was not at all an election stunt and the project will be completed in one year and start clothes production.
A leading Indian cotton producing-state has withdrawn an order asking government officials to inspect fields planted with an unapproved variety of genetically modified (GM) cotton developed by Monsanto Co , the world’s No. 1 seed maker.
Farmers in Andhra Pradesh have planted 15 percent of the cotton area in the state with Bollgard II Roundup Ready Flex (RRF), prompting the local government on Oct. 5 to form a panel of officials to inspect the fields of farmers growing RRF.
The earlier order has been cancelled, senior Andhra Pradesh official B. Rajasekhar said in a statement issued on Friday, and seen by Reuters.
Rajasekhar did not give any reason for rescinding last week’s order. Calls to his office went unanswered.
Bollgard II RRF is a proprietary technology owned by Monsanto, which last year withdrew its application seeking approval from the regulator, Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), for this variety.
It is not clear how Bollgard II RRF seeped into some cotton fields without the approval of GEAC.
Monsanto applied for GEAC approval of Bollgard II RRF, known for its herbicide-tolerant properties, in 2007.
When the U.S. company withdrew the application last year, it was in the final stages of a lengthy process that included years of field trials.
A Monsanto spokesman had earlier said that it was a matter of “grave concern” that some seed companies were attempting to incorporate unauthorised, unapproved technologies into their seeds.
New Delhi approved the first GM cotton seed trait in 2003 and an upgraded variety in 2006, helping transform India into the world’s top producer and second-largest exporter of the fibre.
Monsanto is locked in a bitter battle with a leading India seed company, Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd, drawing in the Indian and U.S. governments, Reuters revealed earlier this year. (reut.rs/2ncBknn) (Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Adrian Croft)
The Telangana Rythu Sangham State Vice-President Nunna Nageswara Rao said the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) should be more proactive besides relaxing stringent norms while procuring cotton. Speaking at the District committee meeting here on Saturday, he said the yield of the crop fell drastically due to unfavourable weather conditions.
He said as the CCI is not ready to procure the crop citing colour and moisture content, the traders were exploiting the farmers by offering just around Rs 2,300 per quintal against the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 4,320 per quintal fixed by the Central government.
“There were dry spells during the vegetative growth stage and then untimely rains during the harvesting thus, leading to crop loss.
Keeping this in view, the CCI should be lenient in regard with the moisture content and the colour while purchasing the crop,” Rao said. He demanded that the government hike the MSP Rs 7,000 per quintal besides offering Rs 1,000 bonus. He also urged the government to increase the number of CCI procurement centres to 13 in the erstwhile district of Khammam. He urged the farming community to attend the State-level dharna in Warangal on October 23 to exert pressure on the government. With the Srisailam Reservoir full to brim and the surplus waters flowing into Nagarjunasagar Dam, it is time for the authorities to release water to the Left Canal so that the ayacut farmers will get ready for Rabi. Rythu Sangham District Secretary Madineni Ramesh said the government should consider extending its financial support of Rs 4,000 per acre for the purpose of fertilisers to tenant and podu cultivators.
Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd (NSL) said on Saturday it will not settle a long-standing intellectual property dispute with Monsanto Co over genetically modified (GM) cotton, despite some other Indian companies doing so in recent weeks.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that three Indian seed makers — Ajeet Seeds, Kaveri Seed Co Ltd KVRI.NS and Ankur Seeds — have agreed to resolve differences and end their arbitration proceedings with Monsanto.
But Monsanto is yet to settle the dispute with Sri Rama Agri Genetics, Amar Biotech and NSL along with two group companies, Prabhat Agri Biotech and Pravardhan Seeds.
“We do not want to compromise,” Narne Murali Krishna, a company secretary of NSL, said on the phone from Hyderabad, the capital of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. “On the IPR (intellectual property rights) matter, we’ll continue with our legal case in the Delhi high court.”
Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) (MMB), a joint venture between Monsanto and local firm Mahyco, licenses a gene that produces its own pesticide to more than 45 local cotton seed companies in lieu of royalties and an upfront payment.
Acting on complaints by some local seed companies that MMB’s royalties were too high, the farm ministry last year cut the fees these local firms paid to Missouri-based Monsanto.
Since then, Monsanto — which is being bought by Germany’s Bayer for $66 billion — has been at loggerheads with the seed firms and India’s government over how much it can charge for its GM cotton seeds, costing it tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue a year. “Based on the advice of competent IPR lawyers and communications of Monsanto with the Indian patent office, NSL realised that it was cheated by MMB’s false representations and claims on IPR,” Krishna said.
Earlier this year, citing a local law that excludes seeds from being patented, NSL’s chairman and managing director M. Prabhakara Rao told Reuters that Monsanto should never have been allowed to collect royalties after an initial payment to use its technology. At the very least, Rao added, prices should have been set by the government.
“Since we first signed the licensing agreement with Monsanto in 2004, we have paid Rs709 crore ($109.59 million), which Monsanto should refund to NSL,” Krishna said.
A Monsanto spokesman said: “NSL has already collected the royalty fee from India’s cotton farmers. Instead of honouring the mutually agreed bilateral contract, it continues to default on payments rightfully due to MMB.”
It was not business as usual for garment manufacturers and traders of Puthiyamputhur. Finished products are moving at a slow pace. Business was down by about 30 % this year, J. Pachaiperumal, a readymade garment manufacturer, said on Sunday. Skilled labour shortage led to fall in production. To overcome the problem, cloth bundles were sent to tailors in Ramanathapuram and Tiruchi. Despite sending the fabric to Tirupur for embroidering and to Bengaluru for washing, finished goods could not be marketed successfully.
Normally, business would pick up a few days before Deepavali but this year there was no sign of such development, J. Arulraj, a trader, said.
Arrival of cheaper readymade garments from New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Nagpur has hit the traders. Goods and Service Tax (GST) also hit the industry.
T. Manohar, president, Clothes and Readymade Garment Traders Association, Puthiyamputhur, said a new model, ‘mastani midi,’ a woman’s garment comprising a set of three pieces, was moving fast. It could be dressed as a midi or churidhar.
A.S.A. Selvakumar, a manufacturer, said 150 beedi rollers from Ambasamudram were trained in tailoring this year to overcome labour shortage.
Puthiyamputhur should be declared as a ‘readymade garment park’ and the government should create market integration facility to promote the industry. Moreover, subsidised electricity was required.
D. Palani Thangam, another manufacturer, said small traders could not withstand the GST impact. V. Lingaraj, dealing with small retail shops in 30 districts, said about 50 %of business was affected. Such a trend has been prevailing after demonetisation and GST aggravated the agony of traders.
