Smriti Irani launches India's 1st ever cotton brand 'Kasturi'
New Delhi: The Union Minister of Textiles and Woman and Child Development, Smriti Zubin Irani launched the first-ever Indian Cotton Brand and Logo "Kasturi" on the 2nd World Cotton Day being celebrated world-over. The Minister said, "India's premium Cotton would now be termed as 'Kasturi Cotton' in the world cotton trade and will be famous for its Whiteness, Brightness, Softness, Purity, Luster, Uniqueness and Indianness".
She was speaking at the Webinar jointly organised by Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), The Cotton Textile Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL) and The Cotton Corporation of India Ltd (CCI), along with Ministry of Textiles on the theme of "NEW-LOOK COTTON".
The Minister said, "Cotton is one of the principal commercial crops of India and it provides livelihood to about 6.00 million cotton farmers. India is the second largest cotton producer and the largest consumer of cotton in the world. India produces about 6.00 Million tons of cotton every year which is about 23 per cent of the world cotton. India produces about 51 per cent of the total organic cotton production of the world, which demonstrates India's effort towards sustainability". Hence, she pointed out that enhanced production and better utilisation of this cotton especially, Extra Long Staple (ELS) can enhance our share in the world cotton trade.
T Rajkumar, CITI Chairman welcomed the launch of National Brand for Cotton "Kasturi" – the first Indian cotton brand, which he said, "will help Indian textile manufacturers and exporters to draw better price realisation on their cotton products in the international markets". He also said, "Indian exporters at present do not get better prices on the cotton products due to poor quality of cotton fibre and contaminated cotton". Hence, he stated that the launching of the Indian cotton brand by Minister will enable the Indian cotton value chain to improve the cotton quality and emerge as one of the best in theworld and facilitate in producing high value-added products out of the same to sustain the growth. He also pointed out that our country accounts for 38 per cent of the world area under cotton and the ongoing measures and various initiatives taken by the government to improve productivity, quality and branding of Indian cotton and its products across the value chain will have a bright future and make Indian cotton globally competitive.
CITI Chairman opined that the World Cotton Day is more relevant for India as there has been a 25 per cent to 30 per cent drop in cotton consumption across the global as well as in India due to COVID-19 pandemic.
He also stated that excess cotton stock to the tune of three to four times of normal stock level would be a challenge for India and our Ministry is already taking necessary steps to boost the exports of all products across the value chain apart from increasing the consumption domestically.
T Rajkumar pointed out that CITI, erstwhile known as Indian Cotton Mills Federation (ICMF), has had been striving hard to boost the economy of the cotton community by partnering with the Central and State Governments.
