Cotton 2040–New Initiative

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The challenge

Climate change and drought, food security for a growing population, human rights, biotechnology, ‘fast fashion’, the circular economy - these and other factors and trends are combining to create many long-term risks and opportunities for the cotton industry.

There are excellent initiatives out there that aim to build better resilience for the sector, navigate it through an uncertain future and ensure that it continues to thrive within our planet’s limitations. Change is urgently needed for farmers, the environment and the textile industry to safeguard its long-term viability. However, given the sheer scale and complexity of the challenge, existing efforts aren’t making it happen at the speed and scale that we need.

Cotton 2040

The Cotton 2040 initiative is a unique cross-industry partnership, including leading brands and retailers, cotton standards, producers and industry initiatives. It aims to maximise and accelerate current sustainability initiatives in the global cotton industry and drive more sustainable cotton firmly into the mainstream. By bringing industry stakeholders together, and aligning efforts in priority areas for action, it seeks to ensure that their collective impact is more than the sum of their parts.

With the support of the C&A Foundation, Forum for the Future began to scope the key issues and crucial levers for change towards a more sustainable cotton industry in February 2015. Through 18 months of research, dialogue and development work with global stakeholders and experts, we developed proposals for four cross-industry areas for action (workstreams) with the potential to create a systemic shift in cotton.

These workstreams will be pre-competitive, action-driven collaborations: bringing together a number of organisations across multiple sectors for collective action.

The first of these, 'Building demand for sustainable cotton', was launched in November 2016 and we are also moving forward with the Traceability workstream.

The four proposed workstreams are:

Building demand for sustainable cotton

Shaping the nature of the demand for sustainable cotton is critical to transforming the system. This workstream is working on enabling an increased demand for sustainable cotton within the fashion and apparel industry, by highlighting the benefits of choosing sustainable cotton and providing resources and guidance on sourcing it.

Cotton recycling and circularity

The recapture and reuse of cotton fibres in textiles has the potential to transform the cotton industry and yield significant sustainability benefits for the sector. This workstream will focus on developing chemical textile-to-textile recycling as a key enabler in circularity.

Traceability

Difficulties with traceability of cotton across the supply chain create significant barriers to uptake. This workstream will initially focus on the establishment of a common traceability interface to make it easier for brands and retailers to purchase sustainable cotton across multiple standards, and simpler for producers to manage data entry. It will also focus on helping brands and suppliers to develop internal data systems to support greater use of sustainable cotton.

Upskilling for resilience

The long-term viability of the cotton industry relies on the ability of farmers and farming communities to be resilient in a changing world. This workstream will focus on creating a cross-industry forum to build resilience among smallholder cotton farmers.

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5/21/2017 | 0 comments

Decreasing trend in yarn production in India

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5/21/2017 | 0 comments

Hosiery yarn price - January 2015

COTTON YARN HOSIERY CONES :	current week	last week	last Month	Last year
20s (K)	174	174	184	196
30s (K)	195	195	205	217
40s (K)	216	216	226	238
40s (C)	233	233	243	255
Average	204.5	204.5	214.5	226.5

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1/12/2015 | 1 comments

TIRUPUR exporters demanding ban on cotton and cotton yarn exports

Unprecedented increase in cotton prices has forced
garment industry stakeholders in Tirupur, the knitwear hub of
the country, to adopt resolutions demanding suspension of
cotton and cotton yarn exports for three months among other
things.
According to associations of stakeholders of Tirupur garment
sector, the high increase in the cotton yarn prices has
significantly affected the knitwear garment sector of Tirupur and
sustenance of stakeholders has become increasingly difficult as
a result.
A meeting of the stakeholders of the garment sector held on
Tuesday in Tirupur presided over by Dr A Sakthivel, president of
Tirupur Exporters Association, adopted several resolutions to
seek protection for the textile industry.
The meeting said as the cotton exports have already crossed
90 lakh bales. The cotton yarn exports touched 590 million kg
in the first five months. The cotton yarn advisory board has
estimated only 1000 million kg of cotton yarn exports for the
whole year. Moreover, 60% of cotton yarn exports are destined
for competing countries like China and Bangladesh ultimately
giving stiff competition to country's garment exports. The
meeting wanted both exports to be suspended for three months.
The other resolutions are that Cotton Corporation of India
should sell cotton only to actual users and not to the traders, a
request to the associations of mills to advice their members to
slash the cotton yarn prices by Rs 8 per kg to Rs 10 per kg and
roll back to the price level in last month and that the
associations do not have any objection to the farmers getting
right price for the cotton produced by them.
The meeting decided to send the resolutions to the Prime
Minister, and the union ministers handling finance, commerce,
textiles and agriculture. If the government does not concede to
their demands, the associations will meet and decide on the
next course of action. The conference also appealed to the
Central government to implement free trade agreement with EU
nations to increase exports from Tirupur.

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9/11/2013 | 1 comments

Increasing yarn price..

Expressing concern over volatility in yarn prices, the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) has sought early Government intervention to overcome the situation.

In a letter to Commerce and Industry, Textile Minister Anand Sharma, the AEPC said cotton yarn prices should be carefully monitored, as small manufacturers and handloom weavers were considerably impacted due to the steep price hike.

AEPC Chairman A. Sakthivel said, “Unfortunately in the last few months, we have experienced volatility in the price of cotton yarn. While cotton has gone up by about 3-5 per cent in the last two months, yarn prices have increased over 15 per cent in the same period. Also, Indian cotton yarn prices are higher than in other countries such as Pakistan”.

He said at the recently concluded Cotton Yarn Advisory Board meet on August 23, a rather grim scenario had emerged as the total production estimate of cotton yarn stood at 3.5 billion kg. While exports of cotton yarn were projected at 920 million kg, based on current estimates it may exceed one billion kg.

AEPC said that to tide over the situation, the Government needed to put a cap on exports of cotton yarn or free imports of cotton yarn.

“At this stage, we are not advocating any cap on exports, but at the same time, we request that the custom duty of 10 per cent on cotton yarn be completely removed and yarn imports made duty-free. Also, drawback may be allowed on export of garments manufactured from such imported cotton yarn,” he added

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9/04/2012 | 1 comments

Tirupur Hosiery yarn price

COTTON YARN HOSIERY CONES (Price in Rs / KG)
Count	current weak	last weak	Last Month	Last year
	31/12/2011	24/12/2011	26/11/2011	25/12/2010
20s (K)	173	173	175	197
30s (K)	194	194	196	217
40s (K)	205	205	207	231
40s (C)	216	216	218	242
Average	197	197	199	221.75

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1/20/2012 | 0 comments

Lowering Cotton prices

read the full article at : http://www.livemint.com

Cotton prices have been punctured by recent forecasts of a close to 10% increase in production in the country in the 2011-12 season, coming at a time when global demand for yarn and readymade garments has been lacklustre. The price of cotton (Sankar-6 grade) has fallen from an all-time high of Rs. 59,700 per candy of cotton by 43%. On the brighter side, will the resulting fall in input costs lift the profit margins of yarn spinning mills, which hit an abyss in the past two quarters?

Crisil Research, in its optimistic report last week, says that yarn mills’ operating margin could improve by 200-300 basis points (bps) in fiscal 2013, from a low of about 8% estimated in the current year. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.

Traders believe that cotton prices have bottomed out—they are down to August 2009 levels, from where they had begun spiralling month-after-month until March this year.

However, the key determinant for yarn offtake will be demand growth for readymade garments, which ultimately depends on the economic well-being of developed markets—Europe and the US. The outlook in these markets is expected to be dull for the next two quarters at least.

Only the depreciating rupee could boost export revenue, since volumes are likely to remain subdued.

But what may bring marginal relief to the yarn mills is improved demand on the home turf. This fact, and low cotton prices, could ease pressure on their profitability. The situation was slightly different in the first half of the current year. In spite of a 15-20% year-on-year growth in revenue, yarn mills’ profits tanked.

According to D.K. Nair, secretary general of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, of the 226 listed cotton textile firms, 187 reported poor performance with 126 posting net losses, while only a handful of integrated firms clocked decent profit growth during the September quarter.

Most spinners had stocked high-cost inventory anticipating sustained demand growth, which led to high interest cost dragging most firms into the red. For example, during the quarter, large companies such as Vardhman Textiles Ltd and KPR Mills Ltd clocked only one-third the profit of the year-ago period. Further, the southern yarn mills are plagued with a 20% power cut, which, in turn, is affecting utilization levels and operating profits. Present valuations of the yarn mills mirror the negative industry sentiments with the share prices of firms down to less than half the year-ago levels.

The good news is that most mills have cleaned both inventories and losses. The Crisil report adds, “The stock-to-use ratio, which drives the sentiments regarding cotton prices, is estimated to return to the normal level of about 2.5 months in cotton season 2011-12 from a low of 1.2 months in the previous cotton season.”

That said, the December quarter may only be a tad better as high interest costs and power paucity in some regions continue to plague firms.

A pullback in domestic demand, along with lower cotton prices, will help mills turn out better profitability. The question is, when? Ideal conditions would be when demand from the developed world improves, and the rupee remains at these elevated levels. Both, together, may be too much to ask for, but some improvement in global demand itself can provide a boost to the performance of textile companies.

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12/19/2011 | 0 comments

Incentives on Cotton and Yarn exports

Cotton exports have been placed on Open General License (OGL) category without any export cap with effect from August 2, 2011. Government has restored DEPB benefits on cotton from October 1, 2010 and cotton yarn from April 1, 2011 to incentivize cotton and yarn exports addressing the slowdown in the industry. Cotton prices have increased from Rs. 29,500/candy on August 2, 2011 to Rs. 38,500/- candy on August 25, 2011 since these policy interventions.
The draft National Fibre Policy prepared with a decadal perspective projects for an increase in cotton production in the country from 325 lakh bales in 2010-11 cotton season to 433 lakh bales in 2016-17 with a surplus of 58 lakh bales.
The Technology Mission on Cotton was implemented in the 9th, 10th and 11th Five Year Plan with the vision to increase cotton production by about 50 percent from an area of 90 lac hectares by producing globally competitive clean high quality cotton for domestic consumption and value added export. During the period of implementation of the Technology Mission on Cotton, cotton production increased from 95.24 lac bales in 2000-01 to 325 lac bales in 2010-11 and area under cultivation in 2011-12 is expected to reach 120 lac hectares with India’s cotton exports increasing from 0.84 lac bales in 2000-01 to 80 lac bales in 2010-11. Mini Mission- I on development of short duration, disease and pest resistant varieties, improved water and nutrient practices and development of integrated pest management technology is implemented through a number of premier Institutions in the country like Central Institute for cotton Research (CIRCOT), Mumbai, Central Institute for cotton Research (CICR), Nagpur and a number of Agricultural Universities.
This information was given by Smt. Panabaaka Lakshmi, Minister of State for Textiles, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

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8/29/2011 | 0 comments

40% reduced and still low demand

Last year there was a demand and supply mismatch of cotton in the international market which let to record high yarn prices. Then suddenly and an unexpectedly fall in the cotton price induced a fall of yarn prices. The spinner have lost nearly 50% of the stock value of cotton due to sudden fall in cotton price. The yarn price was hit by a hard 40% reduction, even then there is a low demand for the hosiery yarn in Tirupur. Many attribute this sluggish yarn demand to existing dyeing pollution problem. Many exporter as happy to have minimum orders just to retain the buyers till the reopening of the closed dyeing units.

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8/22/2011 | 0 comments

Textile Ministry to recommend duty draw back for cotton yarn exports

The Union Minister for Commerce & Industry and Textiles, Shri Anand Sharma has said that he will recommend duty draw back on cotton yarn exports to Finance Ministry w.e.f. 1st April 2011. On cotton exports he said “comprehensive view will be taken on cotton exports after an inter-ministerial consultation over next few days and a close watch will be maintained on cotton arrival data, maintained by Cotton Advisory Board (CAB), whose meeting is scheduled for August.” He was speaking after taking stock of the Textiles Industry at a stakeholder’s consultations with Industry here today. It was a comprehensive review of key stakeholders of textiles industry, including the cotton industry, yarn industry and apparel producers.

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7/15/2011 | 0 comments

Estimated loss of 11000 crores

The confederation of Indian textile industry have estimated a loss of 11,000 crores for the cotton yarn sector. The confederation has attributed the loss to the government policies such as withdrawal of export incentives, restriction on exports and imposition of excise duty. There has been also un unprecedented fluctuation in the cotton prices, there was steep rise and there was also a steep fall. certainly this can be attributed to a speculation and not to market demand and supply. certainly there has been some foul play happening as far as cotton supply is concerned. 

The smaller spinning units are already feeling the heat. The spinning units have already started to cut down the production. There seems no chance of a price stability of cotton. The uncertainty of price of cotton makes textile business more of speculative business.   on arrival new cotton to market will determine  faith of cotton yarn sector and certain small spinning units.

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7/06/2011 | 0 comments

Spinning mills with 67%production till June 15

Spinning mills in India have announced  1/3rd or 33% production cut to continue till June 15th. This production cut is in protest of yarn export policy of Indian government. <Read more>

The spinner have been asking for a lift of ban on yarn exports so that they can realise a better price and demand for yarn. The request is made due to poor domestic demand and price. on the other hand the cotton grower are also demanding for a lift of ban on cotton exports and the garment exporter are looking forward for a further price yarn drop. Textile ministry would soon be forced to revisit the textile policy if the protest continues for a much longer period. Textile ministry is to be blamed for it's in action  both during the sudden or continuous price raise of yarn for about a year and half and now for suddenly drop in the cotton & yarn price.

Related stories: <Farmer request for Cotton exports> <Cotton price fell by 20%>

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5/31/2011 | 0 comments

Tirupur Yarn Price for the month of May

Prices of  Cotton Yarn for the week ending 21/05/2011
Variety	Price (Rs. Per Kg.) during
	Current	Last	Last	Last
	Week	Week	Month	Year
	21/05/2011	14/05/2011	30/04/2011	29/05/2010
20s (K)	199	211	221	153
30s (K)	219	231	241	163
40s (K)	233	245	255	181
40s (C)	244	256	266	187
Average	223.75	235.75	245.75	171

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5/31/2011 | 0 comments

Farmer want no cap on Cotton export

A delegation of Farmers from Maharashtra will be meeting Mrs.Sonia Rajiv Gandhi on May 20, during the meeting the farmers are expected to demand lifting of cotton export ban. The farmer believe that export of cotton could get a better price for cotton. The farmer allege  Mr.Maran, union textile minster for the sudden fall of cotton prices, further added that he devised a suitable export policy for the benefit of the south Indian textile units. The farmers have said that if demands are not adequately met, they would launch a protest against the government

In case of any protest from the farmer, the government will certainly be in a pressure to lift the ban or cap on the cotton exports, if export policy not framed with care will lead to another demand and supply mismatch in the domestic market ultimately leading to a yarn price hike.

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5/15/2011 | 0 comments

Cotton prices feel by 20%

The cotton prices have fallen due the improved production and due to lower international demand. Prices of Shankar-6, the benchmark variety of cotton, have fallen 20% to Rs46,000-48,000 per candy from Rs62,000 a month ago. It quoted Rs51,700 a candy on April 29. One candy is equal to 355 kg of cotton. The yarn prices in response has fall by about 10%, which is a serious concern for the spinner those who have bought cotton at higher prices and cotton has lost the value due fall in cotton price. This is good news for both domestic manufacturers and exporters.

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5/11/2011 | 0 comments

Cotton prices likely to drop, 21% increase in output.

Indian cotton output is expected to be 35.7 million bales as against the estimated 34.5 million bales, last year cotton product was about 29.5 million bales. Indian cotton output has increased by about 21 % compared to last year. The price of the cotton is likely to come down but this depends upon the government policy over cotton exports. The Indian government is likely to increase the export cap limit from the present 5.5 Million bales.

The government should also take necessary steps to stop speculative trading in cotton, like the Chinese government. The expected demand for the spinning mills in India is only about 26 - 27 Million bales of cotton. If the government plan for any increase in cotton exports or if it does not curb the speculative trading of cotton, then we may see literally no drop in cotton or yarn price further. All eye will be on the governments export policy review that is likely to be announced sometime beginning of next month.

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11/26/2010 | 0 comments

Cotton prices have come down..

The country is expecting a bumper crop and the exporters are anxiously waiting for the cotton supply for their export commitment. The cotton price has already come down from 47500 to 42500 (per 356 kgs) that is about Rs.14 / Kgs. There is a speculation as far as the prices of the cotton is concerned, what if the government removes the cap on cotton export later next month during the review on cotton export policy.

read full article from the business standard newspaper

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11/15/2010 | 1 comments

India to review it's cap on cotton exports

As per the news release from leading daily's it's clear that the government may remove the cap on the cotton export by the end of December because Textile organizations in the United States, European Union (EU), Mexico and Turkey have sent a joint letter to their respective governments urging immediate action to halt cotton trade restrictions by the government of India. If only the cotton exports cap is removed by the government then be prepared for an another huge rise in the yarn price.

 

Read full articles (link:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/Bale-Out-Govt-to-review-cap-on-cotton-exports-in-Dec/articleshow/6826255.cms)

NEW DELHI: India will review the cap on cotton exports in December after coming under pressure at home and abroad for the removal of trade restrictions .
A committee under finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will review the decision by the year-end , well before the US cotton crop comes into the market in February, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said at the Economic Editors' conference held here on Wednesday.
"We will review the cotton export scenario in December," he said.
India has allowed export of only 5.5 million bales (1bale=170kgs).
A total of 4.4 million bales of cotton have already been approved for exports, after India relaxed export restrictions imposed last year on the back of a bumper crop, estimated at round 35 million bales for 2010-11 .
Pressure from the powerful textile industry at home forced the Centre to cap the quantum of exports despite tight global supply.
Textile organisations in the EU, Mexico and Turkey had accused India, the world's second biggest cotton producer and consumer, of violating WTO rules by placing restrictions on trade.
Sections of the government, however , are of the view that farmers should be allowed to realise optimum price through exports. Reports of lower production in the US has boosted cotton to record prices, leading to panic buying by mills.
Meanwhile, a cotton conference on Wednesday held in top producer state Maharashtra demanded a higher support of Rs 4,500/qtl.
Mr Pawar, who is also the minister for food, PDS and consumer affairs, said he would hold talks with state governments soon over allowing foreign direct investment in multibrandretail .Whileopeninguptheretail sector would benefit both farmers andconsumersbyopeningupsupply bottlenecks, there was a need to discuss the impact of this on small retailers , he said.
The minister also raised the Centre's estimates of sugar prodcution this year (2010-11 ) to a record 25mt, agood2mtaboveitsearlierfigure,ina span of few weeks as it prepares to takeadecisiononopeningupexports inmid-November .Privatesectorsugar platform ISMA has pegged output ataminimumof25mt,buttheCentre had pegged this at 23 mt earlier.

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10/29/2010 | 0 comments

Another yarn price (Rs.15) hike is likely

Yarn price has increase by Rs.7 about few weeks back and now be prepared for an another price hike of Rs.15. Now many would think Investing in gold is only a next option to that of investing in cotton. If you had invested in cotton about six to eight months back, by now your investment would have grown at least by 100%. 100% return in 6 - 8 months is more a reasonable return.

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10/28/2010 | 0 comments

Yarn Specifications

Yarn quality is determined by its parameter, below is yarn parameter with specification of a 100% Cotton yarn for Knitting,

COUNT	16/1 CH	20/1 CH	24/1 CH	26/1 CH	30/1 CH	32/1 CH
AVG. COUNT	16.1	20.1	24.1	26.1	30.1	32.1
COUNT CV%	<1.5	<1.5	<1.5	<1.5	<1.5	<1.5
CSP	2400	2400	2400	2400	2400	2400
CSP CV%	<4.0	<4.0	<4.0	<4.0	<4.0	<4.0
U%	8.2	8.5	8.8	9	9.3	9.4
THIN/KM (-50%)	0	0	0	0	0	0
THICK/KM (+50%)	8	10	13	12	19	15
NEPS/KM (+200%)	18	20	22	38	56	58
TOTAL IMP./KM	26	30	35	50	75	73
HAIRINESS	<7.0	<7.0	<7.0	<7.0	<7.0	<7.0
T.M.	3.6	3.6	3.6	3.6	3.6	3.6
TPI	14.5	16.1	17.65	18.35	19.72	20.36
TPI CV%	<5.0	<5.0	<5.0	<5.0	<5.0	<5.0

 

COUNT	34/1 CH	36/1 CH	40/1 CH	50/1 CH	56/1 CH	60/1 CH
AVG. COUNT	34.1	36.1	40.1	50.1	56.1	60.1
COUNT CV%	<1.5	<1.5	<1.5	<1.5	<1.5	<1.5
CSP	2400	2400	2500	2500	2500	2500
CSP CV%	<4.0	<4.0	<4.0	<4.0	<4.0	<4.0
U%	9.6	10.1	10.4	11.1	11.5	11.8
THIN/KM (-50%)	0	1	2	10	15	18
THICK/KM (+50%)	17	15	30	40	55	60
NEPS/KM (+200%)	62	68	60	75	90	120
TOTAL IMP./KM	79	84	92	125	160	198
HAIRINESS	<7.0	<7.0	<7.0	<7.0	<7.0	<7.0
T.M.	3.6	3.6	3.6	3.6	3.6	3.6
TPI	21	21.6	22.75	25.45	26.93	27.88
TPI CV%	<5.0	<5.0	<5.0	<5.0	<5.0	<5.0

For full list of yarn parameters CLICK HERE

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9/04/2008 | 0 comments