Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has crossed its revised procurement target of 75 lakh bales and hopes to obtain another 5 lakh bales in the next 10 days this season. The sale operations, however, have not been going too well with just about 1.35 lakh bales being sold since the operations began on January 27.
According to BK Mishra, MD, CCI, procurement has not been stopped at any centres and arrivals in Maharashtra have been improving over the past week. “There is no such thing as a target. It all depends on the market arrivals and the market price. Last week the market has improved and procurement was reduced to an extent. But going by the current trend, CCI could procure another 5 lakh bales in the next 10 days,” Mishra told FE.
The Maharashtra State Cotton Growers Federation ( MSCGF), however, stopped procurement of cotton in some centres owing to rain and even pushed back plans for sale after recieving a poor response. The Federation, which has put up some 10,000 bales for sale, managed to find buyers for about 800 bales, NP Hirani, chairman, MSCGF, said. “The Federation is a sub-agent of CCI and has to sell at the base reserve price fixed by the corporation. However, the market does not seem to be ready for this yet and there have been losses. Further sales will depend on the market,” Hirani said.
Mishra agreed that losses in sales operations were inevitable since the CCI procures cotton at higher MSP and the sale price is also 5-10% higher than the market. ” Sales have been picking up. Prices were less and in the last three days lesser quantity has been sold. The purpose here is not to create further pressure on an already depressed market,” Mishra said, justifying the meagre quantities kept for sale. Sales will improve when the arrivals become lean. CCI began sales gradually with 5,000 bales increasing this to 10,000 bales a day.