India’s Cotton Yarn Advisory Board has set a cotton yarn export limit of 720,000 tonnes, according to a story published in the India Times. Garment exporters, concerned about worldwide cotton shortages and rapidly increasing prices, had been calling for a ban on cotton yarn exports, but the Board determined that the supply is enough to meet the needs of the domestic industry.
Although the export limit has been set at 720,000 tonnes, only 530,000 tonnes have been registered so far with the Office of the Textile Commissioner, and only 390,000 tonnes had been shipped in the past seven months. The Board also pointed out that cotton yarn spinners are adding about 300,000 spindles per month to the country’s production capacity.
“I don’t see any reason for a cotton yarn ban,” VS Velayutham, former chairman of cotton textile export promotion council and chairman of Tirunelveli-based Gomathi Mills, said in the article. “It is just that the garment exporters are hoping for prices to come down if the exports are stopped.”