SICA's Annual General Meeting
Sanjay K. Jain, Joint Managing Director of TT Limited, (left) speaking at a meeting organised in Coimbatore on Sunday. C. Soundara Raj, president of the South India Cotton Association (second left) and K.N. Viswanathan, secretary of the association (right) are in the picture. Many other problems such as defined grading practices, presence of contaminants and non-standard packing of bales were yet to be solved. Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were also taking efforts to increase the crop in a big way. Hence, continuation of the scheme would help these States. During the previous season, cotton exports were about 95 lakh bales. The cotton crop for 2008-2009 was estimated to be 315 lakh bales in the country. Continuous decline in yarn prices and fall in export volumes of yarn and garments had pushed the textile sector to losses.
It was essential to rationalise the transport costs on cotton. The spinning mills in Tamil Nadu transported cotton in large volumes. The mills incurred huge transportation costs. This year, some of the multi-national companies bought Indian cotton, stored it in warehouses and sold it back to the mills here. The sales by these companies were made under the rules and arbitration of the International Cotton Association, Liverpool. Indian cotton bought in India and stored in Indian warehouses and resold to Indian buyers should be transacted under the rules of Indian-based associations.
