80% cotton ginneries shut shop in Gujarat

18 Mar '11

2 min read

Out of around 1,000 ginning units in Gujarat, only 200-250 units are operational now.

Despite a record bumper crop estimated by the Cotton Advisory Board, cotton arrivals in Gujarat are running short, as a result of which seed cotton prices have gone up.

This has resulted in a rise in cost of production for cotton ginneries in Gujarat. To add to their misery, ginners are not receiving commensurate prices for the ginned cotton. This has resulted in full or partial closure of around 80 percent of ginning factories.

“Cotton arrivals in the main cotton growing belt of Gujarat are trickling down. As a result, 80 percent of ginning units have shut down or are working at low capacities”, laments Dilip Patel, President of All Gujarat Ginners Association.

“Prices of cotton seed brought in by farmers is very high and the final ginned cotton price is not commensurate, due to which we end up losing around Rs 2500-3000 per candy (1 candy= 356 kg)”, Dilip Patel told fibre2fashion.

Girish Raichura of Balkrishna Ginning Industries opines that farmers are hoarding seed cotton, due to which arrivals are stagnating.

“There are a few farmers who have good holding capacity and have decided to sell after the festival of Holi, which falls on March 19”, he informs.

Girish Raichura estimates that around 50 percent of gins have closed down permanently, despite the fact that most of them stop operations around end-April.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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