* Textile sector purchases record number of bales

By Razi Syed

KARACHI: The countryΆs cotton production reached an all-time high level of 14.67 million bales of cotton on March 31, 2012, around one-and-a-half month ahead of the end of the crop season 2011-12, by breaking the previous high record of 14.31 million bales in 2004-05.

The textile mills also purchased record volumes as they piled up more than 13.05 million bales out of the total of 14.67 million bales.

Experts at Sindh Agriculture Forum (SAF) said till March 31, 2012 global cotton mill consumption was also projected to increase by 4.5 percent to 24.8 million tonnes in 2012-13.

Expert said still more than 40 days are left for termination of the crop season 2011-12 and it seems the production will cross 16 million bales level.

He said during this period last year the production stood at 11.72 million bales, which translates to around 2.97 million bales more production till March 31, 2012.

During this period the private sector commercial exporters exported around 1.06 million bales while total last yearΆs stocks stood at around 241,680 bales in the country.

The Cotton Crop Assessment Committee (CCAC) had set target at 14.01 million bales for the 2011-12 crop season, and it later reviewed its target after torrential rains and flash floods in the cotton belt in Sindh and Punjab at 12.20 million bales. During this period the country also imported around one million bales of better quality from USA, India and Brazil for blending purpose. The main importing countries of Pakistani lint are India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

Better yield is attributed to the latest well-researched BT cottonseed, proper crop-related information to growers for usage of fertilizer and appropriate water availability in major crop-growing areas in Punjab and Sindh.

Sindh production stood at 2.78 million bales, around 23 percent decline in the target projection while production in Punjab stood at more than 12.89 million bales this crop season.

The agriculture departments in Sindh and Punjab also enhanced monitoring the crop diseases timely and provided basic remedies for the cotton leaf curl virus and bollworm to farmers and growers, he added.

The country is in a position to export more than 1.50 million bales worth $240 million, as the domestic prices of lint are comparatively lower than the international price, he maintained.

According to International Cotton Advisory Committee, world production will exceed consumption again in 2012-13, leading to rising stocks and global cotton stocks could expand by 11 percent to 14.5 million tonnes in 2012-13.

This is equivalent to 62 percent of global mill use, the largest stocks-to-use ratio since the late 1990s.

The rebuilding of the Chinese national reserve by the end of 2011-12 might hold as much as a quarter of global stocks.