Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said the government should take an early decision on raising the export cap on cotton from the existing 5.5 million bales to protect farmers and handloom sectors.

Pawar, who has written three letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for allowing more cotton exports, cautioned that the government should not delay a decision on cotton exports like it did in the case of sugar.

"Domestic cotton prices are going down. In such a situation, we have to see whether we can export. International market is good and I think we have to take a view at the earliest," Pawar told reporters on the sidelines of an ICAR-CII Industry meet here.

"We have delayed in allowing export of sugar. Now, international prices of sugar have come down from USD 750 per tonne to USD 620 per tonne now. I don''t want a similar situation for cotton. We have to protect the interest of handloom-makers as well as farmers," Pawar pointed out.

The minister said that next date of the meeting of inter-ministerial group on cotton will be decided today.

The government had allowed the export of 5.5 million bales (170 kg each) of cotton in the 2010-11 marketing season (October-September) and the entire quantity has already been shipped.

Last month, Pawar had urged the Prime Minister to increase the export quota of cotton by 1.5 million bales to 7 million bales to help farmers realise better prices.

Pawar had noted that there is a case for more cotton exports as domestic production is high and there is a global shortage of the natural fibre.

According to the third advance estimates of the Agriculture Ministry, the country is estimated to have harvested 33.9 million bales of cotton in the 2010-11 crop year, as against 24.22 million bales in the previous year.

However, the Textiles Ministry has lowered cotton production estimates for the 2010-11 season to 30.5 million bales, as unseasonal rains in December, 2010, have affected crop output, leading to lower arrival in mandis.

In the domestic markets, cotton prices have declined to below Rs 50,000 per candy (356 kg each) at present from the high of Rs 62,500 per candy (356 kg each) two months ago.