Cotton Corp. to use CWC warehouses for storage – OTHERS

The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has signed an MoU with the Central Warehousing Corporation to use its warehouses for storage.

P. Alli Rani, Chairman and Managing Director of CCI, told presspersons that the Cotton Corporation would need space in 500 to 600 warehouses.

The Cotton Corporation purchased 3.6 lakh bales of cotton at MSP (minimum support price) during the current cotton season (October 2017 to September 2018). However, with the steep rise in MSP for cotton, the CCI might have to purchase huge quantities next season (October 2018 to November 2019).

The Cotton Corporation has 350 centres in 11 States and monitors the cotton market in all these places. In 2014-2015 season, it had purchased about 84 lakh bales.

“Next season, we expect to purchase at 2014-2015 levels,” Ms. Rani said.

The CCI will use the warehouses of the Central Warehousing Corporation on a pay-and-use basis. If these are not adequate, it will use the State warehouses. During the current season, CCI used 170 warehouses across the country, including those of CWC, State governments and private facilities.

Contamination issues

On controlling contamination in cotton, Ms. Rani said the Bureau of Indian Standards had circulated a draft proposal inviting comments from stakeholders to introduce cotton bale tagging to facilitate traceability.

“Contamination-free cotton is what the industry wants. The Ministry of Textiles is trying to enforce traceability. The CCI has insisted on labelling by ginners for the cotton purchased by it,” she said.