Business

Cottonseed Oil Processors Look For Government Interventions

The domestic cottonseed processing industry has demanded a special package which can help the industry move into its second phase of growth. The package can provide the industry that produces over 11 million tonnes of cotton seed oil (also termed as heart oil) with the much-needed financial and policy support for technology upgradation of its existing base and help create a robust market for cotton oil in the country.

The industry has also sought for putting in place a technology mission that can address the various issues of the industry in an effective and time bound manner. Currently, the industry, led by around 1,000-odd processors, is highly fragmented and primarily deploys traditional method for oil extraction. Only 5 per cent of the available cotton seed is processed adopting modern processing technology.

In fact, cottonseed (production: 11.3 million tonnes in 2016-17) is the largest produced oil seed (in terms of tonnage) in India, higher than the production of better known oil seeds like soyabean (around 11 million tonnes), rape and mustard (7.8 million tonnes) and groundnut (9.4 million tonnes).

"Cottonseed is the largest produced seed among the vegetable oil seeds in the country, however, it has failed to draw the attention of policy makers. Cottonseed doesn't find any place in research and development programmes initiated by any government agencies _ either under cotton or oil seed. It is high time that the government pays due attention and comes up with some concrete package that can help this industry upgrade its base in terms of technology," said Sandeep Bajoria, chairman of All India Cottonseed Crushers' Association (AICOSCA) at its 57th AGM in Mumbai recently. AICOSCA is putting efforts to popularize cottonseed oil across the country, even as states like Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have taken a major lead. Bajoria believes that boosting the cottonseed oil industry, will go a long way in reducing the country's dependence on imported edible oils.

"As a country, we spend Rs 80,000 crore on imports of edible oil annually and our dependence (around 70%) on exports is growing consistently. India being the largest producer of cotton and thereby cottonseed can add significantly to the overall basket of edible oils, provided the scientific technology is used by the industry.

"There is need to create awareness and sensitize the various government agencies. Despite being produced in such a large volume, cotton seed has not been optimally explored. Farmers need to be educated about the decorticated cottonseed oil cake (DOC) which comes out after the scientific processing," says Yada Krishna Murthy, managing partner of Warangal - based Sri Mahalaxmi Cotton Seed Oil Industries, one of the very few modern processing units based out of Andhra Pradesh which has almost 80% of the cotton seed oil producing units in the country.

"There is need a policy framework to organise this industry which has huge potential in the given situation. Both supply and demand sides will have to be encouraged with adequate incentives," states Jenendra Bohra, executive director of Ferro Oiltek Pvt. Ltd. The Thane-based company is the world's largest manufacturer of modern plant and machinery for the cottonseed processing. It exports a large part of its production to countries like Brazil, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

The cotton seed processing industry has assumed significance as the production of cotton in India has witnessed a substantial improvement in the last decade. India has emerged as the largest producer of cotton in the world.

This follows various government initiatives carried out under Centre - sponsored Technology Mission on Cotton as also cultivation of BT cotton. Cotton production went up to 39.8 million bales in 2013-14 from 24.1 million bales in 2004-05. Cotton production stood at around 38 million in 2014-15 and around 34 million for 2015-16. The production is estimated to be around 34 million bales for 2016-17 and projected to touch around 38 million during the new season of 2017-18.