India : SIMA calls cotton growers to raise ELS cotton output

The Southern India Mills' Association (SIMA) has appealed cotton producers to work out a plan to ensure raise of quality Extra Long Staple (ELS) cotton for the country's requirements and to pull down the dependency on cotton imports.

At the silver jubilee valedictory of the South India Cotton Association, SIMA Chairman, Vijay Venkataswamy explained that the country grows nearly 5.3 lakh bales of ELS cotton, but the demand is of over eight lakh bales, the widens gap of demand-supply of nearly three lakh bales.

However, some producers were successful developing hybrids introducing BT that helped to raise output. These varieties were mostly in the categories of 28-30mm. They have to speed up the development of ELS varieties, said Vijay.

Demand of ELS cotton was expected to rise by 10 lakh bales, due to under spinning of ELS cotton and also the increasing spinning capacity, he said.