India-based Sara Cotton Fibers Private Limited will invest $6.4 million, has it has raised through a mix of equity and debt, in order to fund its plans, to undertake cotton farming in Ethiopia and will produce 50,000 bales of cotton. (One bale = 180 kgs), which it will be selling to leading spinning mills in India, Pakistan, China, and Sri Lanka.

Initially, Sara Cotton will cultivate cotton on around 25,000 acres and has targeted revenues of $50 million in the next 18-24 months. Over a 5-7 year period, the cotton company plans to increase the acreage to 500,000 acres.

Sara Cotton has tied up with Israel based Hazera Genetics, a leading international player with presence in 60 countries in breeding, production and marketing of innovative hybrid seeds of vegetables and field crop seeds and with US based John Deere for agricultural equipments.

It is also planning a community development program as a CSR measure by helping the local community in establishing schools & hospitals. Further it also plans to open Agroskill Development Institute (ADLI) wherein, skilled agro technicians and laborers will be given theoretical and practical training.

Fibre2fashion spoke exclusively with Mr KS Sundhar Rajan, Group Financial Controller, Sara Cotton Fibers who said, “The Ethiopian government has also recently announced cotton as a priority sector for the country and offers a very investor friendly climate for corporate. Incentives for our expansion include a three-year tax holiday, duty-free machinery imports and duty-free import of spares up to 15% of the machinery value.



Source: http://www.fibre2fashion.com/