Related Keywords: closing stock for cotton season projected, cotton corporation of India, creating a buffer stock, India, largest producer of cotton, leading to forced imports at high prices, lowest in five years, NITMA, strong exports, thirteen lakh bales
India, the largest producer of cotton but its closing stock for the 2016-17 cotton season (October-September) is projected at 13 lakh bales (a bale is 170 kgs), the lowest in five years. The country doesn't have sufficient surplus cotton however strong exports are leading to forced imports at high prices at end of the season. Hence their core advantage is getting eroded, said Sanjay K Jain, chairman, Northern India Textile Mills' Association (NITMA).
