Cotton

USDA survey suggests cotton plantings at 25-year low (12:49 GMT 31st Mar, 2008)
Pakistan prices continue to rule firm (12:47 GMT 31st Mar, 2008)
USDA prospective plantings report (12:38 GMT 31st Mar, 2008)
Cotcorp quotes (10:11 GMT 31st Mar, 2008)
Egyptian sales registrations continue slow (8:59 GMT 31st Mar, 2008)
US and West African cottons find favour in Indonesia (8:44 GMT 31st Mar, 2008)
ZCE rallies (8:00 GMT 31st Mar, 2008)
Keqiao Textile Index falls further (7:23 GMT 31st Mar, 2008)
CNCE mixed (3:24 GMT 31st Mar, 2008)
China Cotton Index (2:35 GMT 31st Mar, 2008)
Sales slow on The Seam (21:27 GMT 28th Mar, 2008)

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The following are analysts' estimates for cotton area
in millions of acres for the 2008 U.S. Department of Agriculture's prospective
plantings report, as compiled by Dow Jones Newswires.

The USDA is scheduled to release the report at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT)
Monday.

Parentheses denote the number of estimates in that average and range.
2008-09 Cotton Acreage


Avg. Range 07-08
Seedings
Acreage (7) 9.20 8.85-9.5 10.83

Company
Alaron Trading 9.23
Keith Brown & Co. 8.85
First Capitol Group 9.34
Flanagan Trading Corp. 8.9
Iamhedged.com 9.1
Kropf & Love Consulting 9.5
Varner Brothers 9.3

-By Holly Henschen, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2338;

India mulls trade measures to tame inflation: Kamal Nath
New Delhi - India may consider a proposal to further reduce import duties on edible oils, including palm oil, at a meeting to be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday evening, Trade Minister said.

31/03 16:42 Edible oils end down on duty cut talks

31/03 13:24 Spot soy oil traded weak in MP

31/03 13:07 Soybean may continue rally

31/03 12:41 Groundnut oil remains unchanged

Rejoice! Mango production to go up 12% this year

New Delhi, March 31: Mango production in India is likely to increase by 12 per cent to 14 million tons this year, which may lead to a marginal decline in its prices, an apex body said.

"Flowering is good this year. So, we are expecting mango production to go up to 14 million tons from 12.5 million tons last year," the Mango Growers Association of India President Mr S Insram Ali said. The production of mango is expected to increase in a ll the major states, he added.

When asked about the prices, Mr Ali said it would be little lower than last year. Mango, known as the king of fruits, has already hit Delhi market with arrival of Safeda and Totapuri varieties from Andhra Pradesh.

Mangoes are currently being sold at Rs 40-50 per kg. Delhi is the largest trading centre for mangoes in the country. However, a wholesale trader said the price trend would be known only after one week when arrival from Andhra Pradesh would pick up.

"Although the production is estimated to be higher in Andhra Pradesh, the quality of mangoes have been affected due to hailstorm and rain in the state. So, its too early to say whether prices would be lower this year," a wholesale trader Mr Sudesh Sachde va said.

According to the mango growers association, production in Andhra Pradesh is estimated to rise to 35.7 lakh tons from 31.9 lakh tons. The output would increase to over 30 lakh tons in Uttar Pradesh from 26.7 lakh tons, despite damage to the crop in Sahara npur belt due to cold, Ali said.

Urad: Demand-supply and price outlook 2008
Lower production in chana and tur is likely to increase the import of pulses from overseas. However, the bumper urad output may provide some relief. Production for the current year is expected to be as expected.

31/03 17:13 Mumbai pulses market ends steady

31/03 11:31 Mumbai pulses open steady

31/03 09:37 Desi chana opens lower in Delhi

31/03 13:00 Rajma prices up on low output

Govt scraps import duty on edible oils to check 13-month high inflation

New Delhi, March 31: With inflation shooting above 6%, the government on Monday swung into action and abolished import duty on soya oil and palm oil, banned the export of non-Basmati rice and has cut import duty on crude oil to zero.

Import duty on refined oil was reduced to 7.5%. The government also reduced duty on hydrogenated vegetable fats to 7.5%. The refined oil category includes sunflower, soya bean, coconut and groundnut

Import duty on butter and ghee was reduced from 40% to 30%, while duty on maize was cut from 15% to 0%, for an upper limit of 5 lakh metric tons.

The government also imposed an across the board ban on essential foodstuffs. Export of non Basmati rice was banned, while MEP on the export of Basmati was raised from USD 1000 to USD 1200. Ban on the export of pulses, which was to expire today, was extended by another year.

All the state governments have been asked to impose stock limit orders on all essential commodities, Chidambaram said. “We restored this power to state government 18 months ago, unfortunately most of the states are not implementing it.”

“The onus is on the state governments to ensure that the stock limit orders are properly imposed,” he said.

The Finance Minister said that though a decision on the rising price of steel and iron has been temporarily deferred, as the Iron and Steel minister was out of the country, the government was extremely concerned at the rising prices.

He said that he had heard reports that steel manufacturers were considering a price rise. “On behalf of the government I would advice them to observe restraint,” Chidambaram said.

The decision was taken at a three-hour long meeting of the Cabinet Committee on prices chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his official residence here.

The government, on March 20, had reduced import duty on crude palm oil, including crude palmolein, from 45 per cent to 20 per cent and refined palm oil, including RBD palmolein, from 52.5 per cent to 27.5 per cent. The existing duty on soya oil is 40 per cent.

The meeting was convened to discuss measures to combat inflation, to rein in which the government`s Left allies today gave the administration two weeks.

Earlier in the day, the Congress, which heads the multi-party UPA government, decided to ask the government to ban futures trading in more farm items to keep prices under check. Futures trading is already banned on staple commodities like rice, wheat and pulses - urad and tur.

AICC media department chairman M Veerappa Moily said that inflation was a global phenomena and cited China`s example where the general price line grew by 8.7 per cent for February this year -- its highest in the last 12 years, with the country witnessing a "staggering" rise in pork and vegetable prices.

However, the three commodity exchanges -- MCX, NCDEX and NMCE -- are learnt to have stated that the ban on futures trading of wheat, rice and few pulses last year has not helped ease pressure on prices.

Reactions

A Chandrashekhar, Editor, Businessline, gave mixed reactions to the government`s measures.

"The ban on non Basmati rice would not help much as their export has already stopped for the past few months," he said.

He also said that the government should have reduced import duty on both crude and refined oil to 0%.

"The state should decrease storage control limit. Today`s steps would positively affect the market, by inducing speculators to sell and get out of it," he added.

The edible oil industry welcomed the government`s move to reduce duties on imported edible oils and said it may help check the rising prices.

"It is the need of the hour," Solvent Extractors Association of India Executive Director B V Mehta told a news agency.

There will be reduction of Rs 2.5-3 per kg in the prices of palm oil and Rs 5-7 in refined soya oil at the current international prices, he said.

Mehta said it is good that government has maintained the difference in duties between crude and refined, so that the industry will continue to import crude edible oil, refine it here and supply in the domestic market.

All edible oils in crude form can be imported at zero duty, while the duty on oils in the refined form would attract 7.5 per cent.

The decisions were taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Prices at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh`s official residence here tonight.

These decisions will come into effect from midnight tonight, but a notification will be issued on Tuesday.

The government has also reduced duty on Vanaspati, the vegetable oil mostly consumed by hotels and restaurants, to 7.5 per cent from 20 per cent.

It has cut import duty on butter and clarified butter (ghee) from 40 per cent to 30 per cent.

The government, on March 20, had reduced import duty on most of the edible oils in crude form except soya oil to 20 per cent and refined oil to 27.5 per cent. Earlier, the duty on soya oil was 40 per cent.

India imports about half of its edible oil requirement. The palm oils are imported from Malaysia and Indonesia, while soyabean oil from Brazil and Argentina.

Edible oils limit down on duty cut
Mumbai - Indian vegetable oilseeds and oil complex was sharply down with trading stuck at the lower limit of four per cent in the national exchanges Tuesday. The Central government scrapped the duty on edibale oils.

01/04 09:19 India abolishes import duty on crude edi...

01/04 08:17 Soya bean NCDEX MAY

01/04 08:15 Castor Seed NCDEX MAY

01/04 08:01 Mustard Seed NCDEX May

Cotton lint firm in north India
Abohar - Cotton lint traded unchanged amid average demand at the spot markets across north India Tuesday. Around 3,000 bales of kapas arrived in the entire northern region today.

01/04 10:23 Cotton futures descend sharply

01/04 09:14 ICE cotton falls on weak soy, wheat

01/04 08:46 Kapas NCDEX April

01/04 08:02 Kapas Khali NCDEX MAY

Exports up 35.25% to USD 14.23bn in Feb

New Delhi, April 01: India`s exports grew by an impressive 35.25% in February 2008 to USD 14.23 billion despite exporters facing erosion in their competitiveness due to increase in rupee value.

Exports for the April-February 11-month period registered a growth of 22.9% to USD 138.42 billion.

Imports in February went up by 30.53% to USD 18.46 billion. The cumulative imports for April-February period were USD 210.89 billion showing a growth of 30.21%.

The 11-month trade deficit was placed at USD 72.46 billion against USD 49.32 billion a year ago, according to official data released on Tuesday.

While exports showed a huge growth in dollars terms in February, the increase in rupee terms was 21.71%.

Imports in rupee terms showed a growth of 17.45% in February.

The rupee has strengthened by over 10% in the last one year, eroding exporters’ margins.

India teeters on brink of food crisis: Experts

New Delhi, April 01: It is not the galloping prices of essential commodities alone that is worrying policy-makers. Availability of food grain is also becoming a major problem as a result of falling productivity and lower buffer stocks, experts maintain.

`The government needs to be serious to avoid any food crisis,` said P. Chengal Reddy, secretary general of the Consortium of Indian Farmers Association (CIFA) - a forum that seeks to protect the rights of farmers at the national level.

`The fact that the share of agriculture in the country`s gross domestic product (GDP) has sharply reduced to 18.5 percent in 2006-07 from 36.4 percent in 1982-83 paints the real picture,` Reddy said.

The statistics available with the ministry of food and civil supplies also reflect the precarious situation, with the buffer stock of both wheat and rice below the minimum level set by the government.

The stocks of these two commodities available in government warehouses were 19.2 million tonnes in January against the minimum norm of 20 million tonnes. This is a sharp decline from the level of 24.4 million tonnes in January 2004.

This apart, the rate of growth of food grain production actually decelerated to 1.2 percent between 1990 and 2007, lower than the annual average population growth of 1.9 percent, official data showed.

Similarly, the per capita consumption of cereals declined from a peak of 468 grams per day in 1990-91 to 412 grams in 2005-06 - a decline of 13 percent - while for pulses it came down 27 percent from 42 grams to 33 grams.

`The chances of having a food crisis can`t be ruled out if the government does not take corrective measures by increasing the productivity of farmers,` said Devinder Sharma, a food and agriculture policy analyst.

`Since 1987 there has been a yearly increase of two million tonnes in domestic food grains productivity against the requirement of seven million tonnes. The gap will spiral out of control if timely interventions are not made,` Sharma said.

The situation in the global market is also adding to India`s problems with the Food and Agriculture Organisation successively estimating a lower production in the past couple of years.

This resulted in prices shooting up further as soon as India entered the market. In wheat, for example, the weighted import price was $204.7 per tonne in 2006-07 and shot up to over $400 per tonne the next year.

Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had sought to raise alarm bells during his speeches in recent months and said the farm sector was not only becoming less productive but also dragging India`s overall economic growth.

`The next decade is going to be one in which our food security will be under stress,` the prime minister had told the National Development Council while finalising the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012).

For the moment, officials in-charge of managing India`s food stock - like Food Corporation of India (FCI) chairperson Alok Sinha - feel India may not have entered into a crisis situation and hope for a much higher procurement this season.

`There is no food grain shortage as of now,` said Sinha, whose agency is the official procurer of food grain for the government coffers. `We have 5.5 million tonnes of wheat in the buffer stock against the requirement of four million tonnes.`