The total cotton textiles exports growth is led by a 31.75-per cent surge in export of cotton madeups. Export of madeups stood at Rs 2089.71 crore against January-May 1999 exports of Rs 1586.14 crore. Cotton fabrics registered an increase of 11.30 per cent with exports of the same touching Rs 2047 crore against corresponding period's Rs 1839.40 crore.

Cotton yarn continued to lead the pack in cotton textiles exports. Shipment of the commodity, though registered only a 10.24-per cent growth during the first five months of 2000 compared to the corresponding period in the previous calendar, picked up in May after a setback in April. Total cotton yarn exports for January-May 2000 stood at Rs 2877.30 crore against January-May 1999 exports of Rs 2609.90 crore.

According to the provisional figures of exports released by the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil), exports of cotton textiles from India registered an increase of only 13.55 per cent in dollars terms - $ 1608.44 milllion during January-May 2000 against $ 1416.46 million achieved in last corresponding period. The target for fabrics and madeups, it may be noted, for 2000-'01 has been maintained at the previous year's level of $ 2400 million and that of cotton yarn increased to $ 1700 million from last financial year's $ 1500 million.

An analysis of the data shows a declining trend in the case of export of grey cotton fabrics and an increase in export of printed fabrics by powerlooms. Grey cotton fabrics exports fell from Rs 292.14 crore to Rs 273.47 crore during the period under review and printed cotton fabrics exports jumped to Rs 385.83 crore from Rs 286.64 crore.

In the case of cotton madeups significant jump of over 58 per cent is noticed in exports to the US markets - from Rs 604.60 crore in January-May 1999 to Rs 955.70 crore in January-May 2000.Increase in export of cotton yarn of counts 31s to 40s (combed) made a significant impact. Exports of these counts registered a 42-per cent increase to Rs 659.16 crore. However, cotton yarn exports under the statutory ceiling (1s to 40s to non-quota countries) remained sluggish. Only 53.60 million kg was exported till May against the annual ceiling of 500 million kg.