* Imports to cost textile sector over $900 million
By Razi Syed
KARACHI: Cotton target for the 2010-11 season of over 15 million bales cannot be materialised as floods and rains have damaged around 2.3 million bales in the country.
Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) said Friday that 100 percent BT cotton variety was sown in Sindh and Punjab for better yield results but due to floods and rains, the production was severely affected.
Cotton export during August to July 2010 stood at 908,100 bales while 320,000 cotton bales were imported during the same period, PCGA patron in chief, Rana Abdul Sattar said. “Around 65,710 cotton bales were exported from cotton crop season 2008-09 while 842,300 cotton bales were exported from cotton crop season 2009-10”, he said
Rana said growers were trying timely spray of pesticides on crops in water receding areas to save the crop from virus attacks.
There is greater responsibility on the part of agriculture field officials to suggest growers about remedial measures to minimise virus attack on the crop, he added.
A senior trader at Karachi Cotton Association (KCA), Shakeel Ahmad said the government should announce relief package to cotton farmers in Sindh and Punjab and compensate ginners on their losses incurred by rains and floods.
Ahmad said representatives of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association, PCGA, downstream textile sector, Pakistan Yarn Merchants Association and Pakistan Looms Owners Association were calculating the outcome of cotton shortfall to their respective industries.
Pakistan’s textile sector will bear a burden of over $900 million on import of cotton from USA, India and Brazil, as they need around 15 million bales, he added.
This crop year, the production estimate in Pakistan was about 15 million bales but due to rains and floods several production patches have been affected, he added.
The cotton growing areas affected by rains and floods including Multan, Muzaffargarh, D G Khan, Rajanpur, Layyah, Jhang, Shorkot, Mianwali, Bhakkar, Rahimyar Khan, Ghotki, Daherki, Sukkar and Naushehro Feroz. After analysing and calculating the losses, the stakeholders are afraid to face a decline in the production around 1.9 to 2.3 million bales this current crop season. The import from India is cheaper besides freight is also lower than imports from USA or other country, he maintained.
No official word in India has yet been announced on export policy and much conjecture prevails.
“But it is expected that cotton will return to Open General Licence and without duty in India, but with a registration system still in place”, he added. As previously indicated, a final decision on the policy is considered unlikely prior to the next meeting of the Cotton Advisory Board (CAB), probably to be held during September. In India, current 2010-2011 production forecast is 32.50 million bales and consumption estimate 26.00 million and it would imply a potential exportable surplus of around 6 million bales, compared with the CAB’s estimate for 2009-2010 of 8.3 million bales.
