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Australia, which is globally the fifth largest exporter of cotton, is looking at India to emerge as a consistent and major buyer of its commodity. An eight-member delegation representing the Australian Cotton Shippers’ Association held meetings in Ludhiana, Mumbai, and Coimbatore between February 27 and March 3. “We came to promote and enhance use of Australian cotton,” Matthew Bradd, chairman of Australian Cotton Shippers’ Association, told The Hindu here on Thursday. “We want India to become a consistent buyer of our cotton.” Australia has nearly 1,200 cotton growers and can supply even small quantities of cotton to India. China purchased over 30% of Australia’s cotton production last year. However, this was lower than its usual purchase.“India is a big market for cotton and spinners in India said they have had good experience with Australian cotton,” he said. According to Hamish McIntyre, vice-chairman of Cotton Australia and a member of the eight-member delegation, India used to purchase 5% to 7% of cotton produced in Australia every year. In 2016, it shot up to nearly 23%. This was mainly because of the drop in production in India last year. Indian textile mills can use Australian cotton as a blend to produce high value garments. The area under cotton and production was increasing in Australia, he said. K.N. Viswanathan, vice-president of Indian Cotton Federation, said that Australia cotton is known for its quality and strength. However, its production was limited until last year.India is the largest producer and consumer of cotton globally. But, India’s imports are also more to meet the need for long staple cotton. For Indian spinners, with failure of monsoon in many places this year where long staple cotton is grown, Australian cotton can be an option. At present, Australian cotton and Indian cotton prices seem to be almost at par. The Indian cotton industry faced a number of problems. Most of them did not have managerial leadership and technical knowledge except the financial capability so had to face the chill wind almost constantly. The result was the frequent changes of managing agents and liquidation of the companies on the one hand, and the oligarchic concentration of the mills to a few agency firms on the other hand. The Indian cotton textile industry had to face stiff competition from Britain’s most internationally aggressive cotton industry. And, in the process, British industry suffered a lot at the hands of the Indian industry. But some events of the 1920s eroded the competitiveness of the Indian industry. After the end of the World War I, Japanese exports of cloth to India acted as a big threat to the Indian industry though such Japanese exports were held in check in the 1920s. But it reappeared after 1930 despite a high tariff rate of 50 p.c. Most of the labourers of the cotton mills were unsophisticated in the sense that they were recruited from the small peasants and agricultural labourers. As a result, permanent textile labour force could not arise. Textile machinery and technology used in this industry were imported before the World War I and it continued till the outbreak of the World War II. However, India could not procure modern equipments from America and Japan because technology of the cotton textile industry was heavily Manchester-biased.