SIMA Chairman has pointed out that the Indian economy largely depends on the cotton farmers and the textile industry and therefore, the Government should take care of the interest of both the segments. The cotton farmer has already been protected by the Government with over 43% hike in the Minimum Support Prices announced during last year. The cotton textile industry was not only neglected but also saddled with high cotton cost, miserably failed to compete with the multinational cotton traders during the peak season and ultimately end up paying very high prices from the same traders even for the domestic requirement. Mr.Thulasidharan has stated that over 18 lakh bales of new crop has already been covered by a few large traders for export which has skyrocketed the domestic cotton prices in a week's time.
SIMA Chief has stated that the Government should take necessary steps on a war footing basis for the mutual benefit of the cotton farmers and as well as the predominantly cotton based textile industry which employs over 90 million people directly and indirectly. He has further said that 1 lakh cotton bales would provide employment to 60,000 people and therefore, all good and above average quality cotton should be converted into finished goods and exported which would increase the foreign exchange earnings several times. Therefore, SIMA Chairman has appealed to the Central Government to immediately ban cotton export and stop registering any further quantity for exports so as to sustain the livelihood of several million people employed in the industry.