The price of cotton generally shoots up when the industry needs cotton and when the arrivals have come down in the market. But this year, just two months since new cotton season began and the prices of cotton have already gone up though arrivals continue to be high in the market.

This situation has driven as many as 43 textile mills in the State have come together and plan to import cotton from West African countries, depending on the requirement.

Prabhu Damodaran, secretary of Indian Texpreneurs Federation, said that instead of deciding to go in for imports at a later time, this year, they plan to monitor the domestic and international prices regularly and import cotton when the prices are viable. The mills will be entering into individual contracts for the imports.

However, it will be a joint decision. This will benefit the mills as they will have adequate cotton when there is a need and they would have purchased it at viable price levels.

It is generally seen that every cotton year (October to September), the price of cotton starts going up after the picking season.