Indian Textiles – 2015
   .... Looking for a Glorious future

However, some of the leading brand entered India in recent time are as under:

India has emerged as a major sourcing destination for new buyers too.  As a measure of growing interest in the Indian Textile and Apparel sector, a number of buyers opened their sourcing/liaison office in 2005, including Marks and Spencer’s, Haggar Clothing, Kellwood, Little Label, Boules Trading Company (UK based), Castle (US based), Alster International, Quest Apparel Inc.

Cotton –the Major raw material

As per Cotton Economic Research Institute, Texas Tech University, India is expected to continue growth in cotton mill use, using an additional 3 million bales by 2015-16, a 19 per cent increase.  India is projected to continue to import primarily longer staple varieties from Egypt and the United States.   Exports  from India are expected to more than double from 2005-06 to 2015-16.  Harvested cotton area in India is projected to remain stable at around 23 million acres.  Significant production increases are projected with the widespread adoption of Bt cotton varieties.

By 2015, China’s share of world cotton mill use is expected to increase from 37 per cent to 42 per cent.  Market share for India, Pakistan and Turkey is projected at 15 percent, 11 percent and 6 percent, respectively.  US share of the world market is expected to drop from 5 percent to 4 percent.

Cotton is still playing a pre-dominant role in Indian Textile Industry. It is also an important cash crop, contributing around 30% to the gross domestic product of Indian Agriculture. Cotton share in total use by the Indian textile industry is forecast to increase to 58% in 2005-06 as against 55.5% used during 2004-05.  This is mainly because of comfortable cotton production and supply situation vis-à-vis MMF (Man Made Fibre) in the recent past.

Industry, with phasing out of quota regime, has given a boost on cotton requirement in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh in the recent past. As estimated, domestic use will surpass previous records in India (15.8 million bales), Pakistan (10.8 million) and Bangladesh (1.8 million bales).

Though cotton farming is restricted to just 10 states, almost 200 varieties of crops exist.  Even in a marginal land holding, the farmers tend to divide it into small plots for the purpose of sowing different varieties of cotton.  This is creating the possibility of mixing at Ginning.

Recent phenomenon development of Cotton production in the country and, in specific, for Gujarat was found mainly due to plantation of GM Crop (Bt Cotton).  India planted (15% cotton cultivated area) 550,000 hectare (1.36 million acre) of Bt. Cotton last year (2003-04) up around 460% from a year earlier.  Gujarat’s share has been 50% of the total area under Bt-cotton cultivation in the country.  Gujarat saw a jump in cotton cultivation after introduction of Bt Cotton seeds from a mere 1.8 lakh bales in 2002 to around 80 lakh bales in 2005.

US Biotech firm Monsanto’s Indian arm, Monsanto Biotech (India) was initially the only one with the governments permission to sell Bt Cotton in the country, resulting in large scale illegal seeds finding their way in to farms.  Later, this forced the Centre to approve conducting trials and commercial production of hybrid Bt Cotton, and several companies have since licensed the technology from Monsanto and rolled out hybrid Bt Cotton verities.  However, recently MRTPC has asked US biotech major Monsanto to reduce prices of Bt Cotton Seeds.  Now, India’s first indigenously developed Bt Cotton by Metahelix Life Sciences, Bangalore has gone for multifield trials, which would be priced 30-40% cheaper and is likely to be in the market by 2006-07.

India could possibly surpass the cotton production of US to become 2nd largest cotton producers in the world in the near future. This favourable situation enables the country to cope up with growing cotton need by subcontinent in this quota free regime. With export subsidy likely to further improve, the Indian Cotton price is expected to be more competitive and countries like Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia are expected to look forward to import cotton from India.

As per the estimate of Cotton Advisory Board (CAB), cotton production is still going strong, inching up marginally from 243 lakhs bales in 2004-05 (Oct-Sept) to 244 lakh bales in 2005-06.  This bumber harvest for the 2nd consecutive year has projected 150% rise (33 lakh bales from 10 lakh bales) in exports and 50% decline (4 lakh from 12 lakh) in import of cotton in 2005-06.  Textile Ministry hoped to rope in China as a principal buyer in cotton.

It may be observed, almost all the cotton producing states has improved the productivity and yield of cotton for the last 2 years.
State wise cotton production (lakh bales)
during the last twelve years

State wise cotton productivity (kg/ha)

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