Indian Texpreneurs' Federation (ITF), which have worked out a partnership model for buying cotton directly from cotton ginners, mainly in Telangana and Maharashtra for its member mills. During the 2016-17 season (October-September) they aim to procure 2 lakh bales (a bale is 170 kgs) and 4 lakh bales for the 2017-18 season.

As cotton production is projected to cross the 1 crore bales mark, a more than 10% increase, in Maharashtra for the 2017-18 season while output is forecast to jump 20% to around 90 lakh bales in Telangana.

At present out of the 400 ITF member mills, 35 mills have joined hands to purchase cotton together. The 35 ITF member mills consume about 11 lakh bales of cotton per year.

Cotton accounts for 60%-70% of the manufacturing costs of textile mills.

They have standardised procedures and are able to maintain consistent quality by partnering with top quality ginners. Their realisation and profitability has gone up by about 2%, since the buying is done in bulk, mills are able to reduce transportation costs by Rs. 2-3 per kg, Prabhu Damodaran, convenor, ITF stated.

ITF has appointed authorised agents for the field level coordination for buying cotton between October and January when arrivals peak. It has partnered with more than 50 ginners in Telangana, Maharashtra and Karnataka for bulk purchases.