By Razi Syed
KARACHI: The country exported a record number of 1.5 million cotton bales in July to June 2011-12, which is 50 percent more as compared with 1.0 million bales exported in July to June 2011, besides the textile sector also bought the highest number of bales, exporters said on Monday.
More than 1.5 million cotton bales were exported with proceeds of more than $425 million during July to June 2012, said Pakistan Yarn Merchant Association member and exporter Ghulam Rabbani.
Around 1.0 million bales were exported the previous fiscal year with proceeds of $18 million to $19 million.
He said Far East countries and China were the major importers of the produce that stood at around 1.0 million bales.
Indian traders bought around 200,000 bales of light grade and after blending the grade they export it to European countries through Heimtextil Frankfurt International Fair in Germany.
Pakistan could not captilise on the opportunity due to some external and internal bottlenecks and exporters could not earn better benefit from the fair. Other importing countries of Pakistan lint besides Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia were Bangladesh, Cambodia and Indonesia.
Heimtextil is the biggest international trade fair for home and contract textiles. Held early in the January, Heimtextil is the annual starting point for manufacturers and trade visitors from all over the world and the foremost global-orientation event.
Pakistan exported cotton in the range of 82 cents per pound to 92 cents per pound and due to dollar-rupee parity PakistanΆs lint foreign exchange earning remained better than the previous year. He said during outgoing fiscal 2012, textile sector bought more than 11.5 million bales as country also produced all time record production around 15.6 million bales.
He said Punjab produced more than 11.8 million bales during July-June 2011-12 as past rains hardly affect the major cotton-growing belt. He said during crop season 2011-12, the growers in Punjab and Sindh cultivated cotton on more than 10 percent extra fields that produced bumper crop more than 15.6 million bales.
In case there is delay of more than 25 days in starting full-fledge monsoon rains in Punjab and Sindh, there is great hope that country will get more 16 million bales in crop season 2012-13, he maintained.
Unless there was no humidity more than 65 percent after rains, the crop would not face any further production loss.
The ideal condition for good crop is dry weather conditions conducive for the cotton plant. Moderate humidity with mild warm conditions for another next three to four days after rains is good. The federal government set the target of 14.5 million cotton bales for the crop season.
