The price of India’s Shankar-6 variety of cotton stood at INR 55,800 per candy (1 candy=356 kg) as against INR 66,000 per candy a year ago, which resulted in a drop of 15.45 percent.
Shankar-6 cotton variety is mainly grown in the Indian state of Gujarat and is considered the best variety among long staple fiber Indian cotton varieties and is also the most exported variety of Indian cotton.
Since prices have stayed depressed, the government-owned Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has bought around two lakh bales (1 bale=170 kg) at Minimum Support Price (MSP) since the beginning of the cotton season.
“Except in the states of Gujarat and Odisha, we are actively purchasing cotton at MSP in nine Indian states,” media reports quoted Lalit Kumar Gupta, CMD at CCI as saying.
The CCI Chief pointed out that current daily cotton arrivals are over 1.5 lakh bales and since the beginning of the season in October, 47 lakh bales have arrived as against 35 lakh bales in the same period last year.
Gupta further added that CCI buys 8-10 percent of cotton arrivals at MSP and so will not permit prices to fall below the MSP, as purchase by CCI acts as a safeguard so that prices do not fall further.
