Nafed in talks with Gujarat body for cotton exports

With the country estimated to have a bumper cotton production, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (Nafed) is in talks with Gujcot for undertaking cotton exports.

If the talks go through, Nafed will export cotton for the first time. So far, the federation has been exporting commodities like rice, onion, potato, tea, mustard oil, etc.

Gujcot is a state level cotton cooperative marketing federation in Gujarat. "We are exploring the possibility of cotton exports with Gujcot and eyeing markets like China. Gujcot has significant experience in cotton exports," said Alok Ranjan, managing director, Nafed.

The cotton crop in 2007-08 kharif season is estimated to cross 30 million bales (1 bale=170 kg), up more than 10 per cent over last season's 27 million bales.

The average yield is expected to be around 540 to 550 kg a hectare, up 5.7 per cent from last year's average of 520 kg mainly due to the use of Bt variety cotton seeds. There would be surplus output in the country as the estimated consumption is only 23 million bales.

Last year, the country had exported 5.5 million bales of cotton (about 20 per cent of its output) and is likely to export 6.5 million bales this year.

In view of a bumper cotton crop in 2004-05, Nafed became the appointed agency in addition to the Cotton Corporation of India to undertake cotton procurement under the central government's price support scheme (PSS). Since then, Nafed is being declared an agency for cotton procurement every year.