An 18-member delegation from Africa is visiting Coimbatore and other textile clusters in the country to assess the potential of selling African cotton here. This is the fourth visit of a team from Africa in three months.

International Cotton Trade, a joint agency of World Trade Organisation and the United Nations, is initiating the mission for promoting African cotton. Indian Cotton Federation sources said that the team would be going over to ICF after visiting the Tirupur knitwear cluster. The cotton federation's Vice-President KN Viswanthan said that the trade here is keen to source cotton from Africa. "Since the domestic prices are high, it will make sense to import cotton from Africa," he said.