Cotton stockpiling surges 159pc by mid Sept thenews.com.pk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thenews.com.pk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Cotton traders and ginners are sure that the country would not achieve the target of 10.5 million bales set for this season which has just started. Dawn/File
KARACHI: Once again the cotton cultivation area has dropped sharply in both the cotton-producing provinces, creating fear of a major decline in production, which has pushed up the initial cotton trading price to an 11-year high.
Cotton traders and ginners are sure that the country would not achieve the target of 10.5 million bales set for this season which has just started. The previous season, which ended in March 2021, could hardly produce 5.6m bales against the target of 11m bales set by the government.
Cotton Crisis Destroys Jobs Tied to Pakistanâs Biggest Cash Crop
Apr 21 2021, 2:44 PM
April 21 2021, 6:30 AM
April 21 2021, 2:44 PM
(Bloomberg)
(Bloomberg)
Pakistan, one of the worldâs largest cotton producers, is finding it increasingly hard to meet its own needs, a problem that could push up import bills and further hurt its fragile economy.
Years of bad weather, pest outbreaks and better margins on other crops have hurt the quality and quantity of harvest. And the scale of damage is accelerating: production in the current fiscal year is set to tumble to the lowest level in about three decades.
As a result, the country is spending billions of dollars to import record amounts of cotton to feed its textile industry, something it can ill afford to do. Its current account which posted a rare surplus between July and December has recently flipped back into a deficit amid higher imports. The move also threatens to boost cotton prices, which have already hit a
KARACHI: The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) on Saturday strongly opposed cotton imports from India, maintaining that the move would discourage local growers from sowing this cash crop.
Growers, ginners, spinners and cotton brokers are actively supporting the government’s decision of not allowing cotton imports from India despite the Economic Coordination Committee approval.
Talking to Dawn, PCGA Chairman Dr Jesu Mal said that if Indian cotton imports are allowed, growers will not go for sowing of cotton for this season. Cotton sowing has already begun in Sindh and will start soon in Punjab.
“Due to no research on cotton seeds, poor pesticides and high cost of fertilisers, cotton yield fell to nine maund per acre during the season ended with just 5.5 million bales almost one third of the production we achieved with 14.8m bales a few years ago,” he said.
Cotton spot rate up Rs300 amid lower stocks thenews.com.pk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thenews.com.pk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.