India has no plans to ban cotton exports - official

Fri, Jul 4 06:05 PM

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India has no plans to ban cotton exports but may cut the import duty to boost supplies and ease prices, which hit record highs in June, a senior official said on Friday.

"There is no plan to ban cotton exports," J.N. Singh, joint secretary, ministry of textiles, told Reuters on Friday.

India on Thursday banned corn exports till October 15 to help domestic poultry industry by increasing supplies and lowering of prices.

The domestic textile industry has been seeking a ban on cotton exports to tame record prices.

Prices of popular Shanker-6 variety of cotton touched a record 28,500 rupees per candy last month, from about 21,000 rupees in the same period last year, Sandip Jain, a cotton trader in Ahmedabad, said.

India has emerged as a major exporter and is likely to export 8.5 million bales in the year ending September 2008, up 47 percent from 5.8 million bales last year, according to Cotton Advisory Board, a industry and government body.

To help tame prices in the local markets, India may lower import duty on cotton from current levels of 10 percent, Singh said.

Inflation accelerated to 11.63 percent in late June, above forecasts and its highest since the series began in 1995.

"Advance sale of cotton for December and January delivery is being done at record prices, mainly by exporters and large traders. High prices have pushed down demand from the local mills," said Jain, the trader.

(1 bale=170 kg)

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