Chandigarh, October 16
Last week’s earthquake in Pakistan, one of the major cotton exporting countries, shook the international cotton market too. And its benefit will go to farmers of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Because of the earthquake, the price of cotton in the Indian market has gone up. Reports reaching here from Gujarat indicate that the price of the Shankar variety of cotton went up to Rs 2,300 per quintal today. Earlier, it was being sold for Rs 2,000 per quintal.
Likewise, the price of cotton in Punjab markets has started to go up, though not as rapidly as in Gujarat. For the past three days, it is selling either at the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1,835 or above. Official sources said if the current trend continued, the cotton price would jump to Rs 2,100 per quintal during next week.
In fact, Markfed was able to buy only 150 quintals of cotton at Mansa today, paying the minimum support price (MSP), because other stacks of cotton were procured by private buyers by paying a higher price, up to Rs 1,870 per quintal. A week ago in Punjab, cotton was being sold at Rs 1,750 per quintal, that was below the MSP.
In the international market, the price of ginned cotton has gone up from 52 cent per pound to 57 cent per pound during the past one week. In trade circles this is considered a big jump. Even in the Indian market, the price of ginned cotton has gone up to Rs 1,750 for every 40 kg. Two weeks ago, it was Rs 1,550 for every 40 kg.
Informed sources said following the earthquake, most major cotton importing countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, Malaysia and China had started looking towards the Indian market for import.” There is apprehension among importing countries that Pakistan, engaged in dealing with the upheaval created by the earthquake, may not be able to export cotton to them. Because of this, a number of importing countries have placed their orders with Indian traders”, say official sources.
“Cotton exporting traders have entered various markets of Gujarat in a big way in the past three days”, said a source. And in Punjab too, four private companies, engaged in the export business have entered the cotton market.
At present, there is no cotton export quota system. Any trader or government organisation such as Markfed and the Cotton Corporation of India
(CCI) can export cotton, provided they get an order from abroad.
Till date, private traders have purchased 1.65 lakh bales in Punjab. And about 35,000 bales have been procured by government agencies such as Markfed and the
CCI. Daily, about 10,000 bales of cotton arrive in Punjab markets.
