The 45th Annual General Meeting of the Indian Cotton Federation (ICF), formerly called as the South India Cotton Association, was held on 29.9.24 at GKS Cotton Chambers.
J.Thulasidharan was re-elected as the President of ICF for 2024-25. Nataraj and Adhitya Krishna Pathy were re-elected as the Vice Presidents. Nishanth A. Asher and Chetan Joshi will continue to serve ICF as its Honorary Secretary and Honorary Joint Secretary respectively.
During the AGM, Thulasidharan expressed that the decline in textile demand made the last financial year the most challenging one. The industry wants the cotton yield to improve, and as per reports, the yield in the 2024-25 period is predicted to be good.
“Current truthful estimate & the feedback from block level, strongly indicate the volume of the cotton crop will be much more than last season 2023-24. In physical terms, the volume will not be less and shall range between 330-340 lakh bales on a conservative basis. The various subsidies and increase in MSP created a boost in the progressive outlook of Farmers for increasing the yield with quality and contamination-free,” he said.
On the other hand, he pointed out that raw materials prices today in India are higher than the world’s prices because of the import duty on cotton. The government should provide solutions to both the industry and the farmers in this regard. It was emphasized that Raw material security and finances with cheaper rates of interest are a must for the industry to grow.
Thulasidharan shared that Union Textile Minister Giriraj Singh had promised to reintroduce BT’s new strain to increase the yield and also to look into the cotton price parity compared to Global prices. The minister had said this during the Textile Advisory Group (TAG) meeting held in July, which was attended by ICF’s Honorary Secretary Nishanth Asher.
ICF had also submitted a memorandum during that meeting stressing the needs of the industry and the Textile Ministry promised to look into all these needs and take policy initiatives accordingly to touch textile export to $100 billion by 2030.
Speaking at the event, Asher said that in recent years, sustainability has become more than a buzzword. He said that ICF will continue to focus efforts to promote sustainable cotton.
“Our government will have to play a pivotal role to ensure a level playing field for our textile and spinning industry. We must also engage with policymakers to address critical issues such as price volatility, supply chain bottlenecks and trade barriers. ITF will continue to advocate for policies that benefit industry, trade and the farmers,” he added.
The major request to the Union Government from ICF was to remove the Import Duty on Cotton. “Raw material (cotton) prices today in India are higher than the world’s prices because of the import duty, so once that import duty is removed it will give a level playing field. We request the government to remove the import duty and rationalize it so the Indian textile industry can grow,” ICF’s Hon. secretary said.
