Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) will start e-sale of cotton stocks with it to small and medium-scale textile mills in a couple of days to keep prices under check, according to an official.

With cotton prices shooting up, the Textile Ministry has directed the CCI to sell cotton purchased by it at minimum support price to micro, small and medium-scale textile mills directly, according to the official.

Support price

The official said the CCI purchased 8.4 lakh bales of cotton at minimum support price this year.

It has supplied nearly two lakh bales to National Textile Corporation and state co-operative mills. It had also sold about 1.5 lakh bales a month over the last four months through e-auction.

Now, the CCI had 27,000 bales with it and these will be sold to small and medium-scale mills. The sales will be through e-auction and only small and medium-scale mills will be able to bid for the stocks. This will benefit the small and medium-scale mills, the official said.

The textile mills here welcomed the direction from the ministry. “This will bring stability to prices and meet the raw material requirement of the smaller mills,” said M. Senthil Kumar, Chairman, Southern India MillsΆ Association.

Mr. C.Varadarajan, President, South India Spinners Association, said the cost of cotton purchased from CCI will be lower than the current market rate.

The CCI should sell cotton at just minimum support price and the cost incurred for storing the cotton till now.