In Brief

Thu, Nov 5 01:50 AM

Raw cotton exports in October soars 293%

India's raw cotton exports in October shot up 293% to 115,637 bales (of 170 kg each) over the corresponding period the previous year, a government official said on Wednesday. The cotton marketing year is from October to September. Overseas demand is back in track mainly from China where crop size is expected to be lower, the official in the ministry of textiles, who didn't wish to be quoted, said. World cotton output is forecast to drop by 5%, or 1.1 million tonne, to 22.3 million tonne in 2009-10, dragged by China, where the crop is projected to drop by 16% to 6.75 million tonne, an international farm group said on Monday.

Turmeric prices move up; cross Rs 12,500-mark

Continuing its upward trend, turmeric price at Erode market, one of the biggest in the country, soared to a new high of Rs 12,700 per quintal on Wednesday. Nearly 3,000 bags of turmeric arrived at the market for sale but because of the high price very few bags were sold, market sources said. on Tuesday, 341 bags of Finger variety of turmeric were sold at prices ranging from Rs 11,561 to Rs 12,419 per quintal, while the Root variety had takers at Rs 12,283 per quintal, they said. Turmeric was sold at Rs 4,000 per quintal in January 2009 and had gradually increased to the present level, R K Viswanathan, a leading merchant said. The price crossed the Rs 10,000-mark last month.

Rajasthan chana acreage falls

Farmers in Rajasthan have so far completed sowing of chana on 220,000 hectares, down 39% from last year, due to patchy rains in the state, a senior government official said. As on November 3, acreage under chana stood at 220,000 hectares compared to 361,000 hectares same time last year, Harbans Singh Yadav, additional director at the state government's agriculture department said on Wednesday. Western Rajasthan received 41% below-normal rains in June-September monsoon season while eastern part fell short by 30%, weather department data showed.

Safety standards for poultry

The government today asked the meat and poultry processing sector to raise safety standards of products to prevent multinational giants from grabbing a major chunk of the domestic market. "If we do not adhere to quality standards, multinational players will enter the domestic market, which will hamper the business of domestic industry," food processing minister Subodh Kant Sahai said here at a function. The minister said the meat and poultry sector has a huge potential for growth as 93% of the business comes at the moment from the unorgainsed sector and called for a "pink revolution" in the country.

Vietnam's rubber exports

Vietnamese exports of natural rubber next year are expected to rise 17% from 2009 to 700,000 tonne, an industry official said on Wednesday. The exports could bring in $1.4 billion, Le Quang Thung, chairman of the Vietnam Rubber Association, told Reuters on the sidelines of an international rubber conference. Deputy agriculture minister Ho Xuan Hung said the trend of using natural rubber was on the rise as high crude oil prices capped the production of synthetic rubber. Demand to use rubber products is also rising for transportation on land, at sea and in aviation, Hung told a news briefing at the annual rubber conference held by the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries.

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