In a notification, Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said the registration requirement for export contracts of cotton and cotton yarn "has been dispensed with".
The move is likely to help stabilise domestic cotton prices, which have fallen below the minimum support price (MSP) in some producing states due to sluggish export demand and bumper domestic production this year.
According to the USDA report, India - the world's second-biggest producer of cotton - is likely to export 7.69 million bales of the fibre in 2014-15 marketing year (August- July), down by 35 per cent from last year due to sluggish demand from China.
Before easing export norms, the Centre had asked the Cotton Corporation of India to procure cotton from farmers in 11 states as the rates have fallen below the MSP in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra.
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"During the current cotton season 2014-15, prices of cotton are below MSP in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra," Minister of State for Agriculture Mohanbhai Kundaria had said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha recently.
CCI has initiated action for procurement of cotton from growers at MSP in 341 centres located in 92 districts in 11 cotton growing states, he had said.
The Cotton Advisory Board has pegged the country's total cotton production at over 40 million bales in the 2014-15 crop year, as against 39.8 million bales in 2013-14. One bale contains 170 kg of cotton.