The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has appealed to textiles minister, Santosh Kumar Gangwar to direct the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to adopt a transparent and fair cotton trading policy which would ensure win-win strategy both for the farming and cotton textile manufacturing communities.

In a press release, SIMA chairman, M Senthilkumar has proposed restructuring the Board of CCI by inducting major stakeholders particularly, the industry representatives, which consumes over 80 per cent of the cotton produced in the country. He said that any short sighted policy would only aggravate the ailing textile industry resulting in serious financial stress.

Senthilkumar pointed out that during the season 2014-15, CCI procured the entire volume of good quality cotton grown in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and parts of Maharashtra and did not release those for more than two months making the actual users suffer seriously. He said that CCI has always been quoting much higher bench mark price than the actual market price thus resulting in speculation.

“During the cotton season 2008-09, CCI offered bulk discount benefiting few traders and making the industry pay Rs.2000 to Rs.4000 more for the home grown cotton,” he said. He also said that during the season 2014-15 also, CCI adopted the same policy of offering bulk lots and forcing small and medium size mills pay Rs.500 to Rs.1000 to the traders for procuring the required cotton. “CCI should offer cotton in smaller lots so that all the size of textile mills could directly procure cotton from CCI and avoid middlemen,” he said.

He pointed out that the CCI plays a major role in seed sales and often at lower price, which affect the price of cotton and its procurement by the regular ginners. The SIMA chairman appealed to the textiles minister to direct the CCI to commence cotton sales immediately in a phased manner throughout the season and ensure stability in the cotton price.