Bumper cotton crop likely

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Parvaiz Ishfaq Rana
KARACHI, Oct 7: Higher phutti (seed-cotton) arrival in Sindh and Punjab during the first month of the new harvesting season (September) has poised the country to produce a bumper cotton crop.

According to figures released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners’ Association (PCGA), the country produced around 2.364 million bales during the first 30 days of the new season, showing an increase of about 0.548 million bales or 30.18 per cent over the corresponding period last year when production stood at 1.815 million bales.

However, whatever the volume of cotton production, it may remain much below the spinning industry’s demand of around 10.4 to 10.5 million bales.

Some analysts believe that the new crop production would be sufficient to meet the consumption demand of raw cotton because on-going global and domestic economic crises are bound to reduce cotton demand.

Cotton prices globally have already started coming down with New York market plummeting from 75 cent per lb to 51 cent. The domestic market also witnessed a big slash of around Rs1,000 in a short period of one month from Rs4,200 per maund to Rs3,200 to Rs3,300.

Sindh recorded a fabulous production growth where phutti arrival soared by 32.36 per cent at 1.245 million bales from 0.940 million bales last year. As a result 0.304 million more bales have been produced so far. At present, 152 ginning factories are operating in the province.

Similarly, Punjab has also produced a much higher quantity at 1.118 million bales which is 0.244 million bales or 27.83 per cent more over the corresponding period last year.

In total, 277 ginning units are presently operating in the province. A cotton analyst said if all goes well and if there is not pest attack, the country could easily produce around 10.25 million bales which should be sufficient to meet the domestic needs under the current slowdown in economic activity around the world. The spinners’ off-take also remained substantially higher at 1.831 million bales over the corresponding period last year when they purchased around 1.459 million bales.

Exporters also seem to be active on lifting about 105,600 bales as against 23,400 bales in the same period last year. Presently ginners are holding unsold stocks of around 426,871 bales compared to 333,070 bales in the corresponding period last year.

http://www.dawn.com/2008/10/08/ebr2.htm