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
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Irfan Khan
LAHORE: Pakistan is struggling to achieve a decent cotton output this year if the arrival of 5.5 million bales reported by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) on Jan 18 is any guide.
Overall, the country’s cotton production is estimated to decline during the present marketing year by almost a third to 5.7m bales from 8.3m bales last year and 60pc from 13.9m bales in 2014. The cotton arrivals from Punjab are reported to have dropped by 30.6pc and Sindh by 38.7pc.
According to PCGA Chairman Jassu Mal, the phutti arrivals at the ginning factories are the lowest in more than three decades resulting in the closure of 800 factories out of a total of 1,200, loss of tens of thousands of jobs and reduced income for cotton-picker women.
Business
January 19, 2021
KARACHI: Raising an alarm on the drastic drop in cotton production this season, Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) on Monday demanded the government to take emergency measures to improve cotton yield to curtail losses worth billions and to safeguard livelihoods.
PCGA Chairman Dr Jassu Mal and other leaders said that cotton production had reached the lowest level in three decades. Urging the government to take concrete measures to address the issue, Mal said the country was âfacing a direct loss of $2 billion annually and $8 billion indirectly due to the drop in cotton productionâ.
Pakistanâs cotton yield had dropped to only 5.5 million bales from 15 million bales, which showed the governmentâs inefficiency and lack of focus on the important crop. This drop was affecting growers, ginners, spinning and viewing industry, as well as the countryâs textile export industry, he added.