Cotton stakeholders meeting on 16th: Operational plan
By Sabihuddin Ghausi
KARACHI, April 8: The two most affluent and politically powerful segments of the national economy — ginners and spinners — are again getting together on April 16 at Islamabad to thrash out a new operational plan for cultivating, processing, providing and using contamination-free cotton next Kharif.
With a history of almost 50 years of bitterness and acrimony, the spinners and ginners got together last July to prepare a strategy to reap one million bales of contamination-free cotton. But the perpetual and unending mistrust between them defeated the government objective as no contamination-free cotton was available. The government had announced Rs200 premium on contamination-free cotton.
What was made available in the current season was low-contaminated cotton on which a premium of Rs75 per maund was announced. But the spinners had serious doubts on the quality of this cotton and eventually Trading Corporation of Pakistan had to buy more than two lakh bales.
Textile operators take plea that they get export orders for yarn only when their buyers are assured the imported cotton has been spun. The foreign buyers are either reluctant to import spun yarn from local cotton or pay less price.
Spinners claim that they bought the local cotton and paid them 10 per cent more than “realizable export price”. Growers and ginners remain angry on the mounting inventory of unsold cotton stocks.
Since spinners remained sceptical of the quality of the locally available low-contaminated cotton, the TCP went for buying and there is a mounting pressure of the growers and ginners to export this cotton.
Obviously, the spinners, reported to have imported more than seven lakh bales of cotton from USA, Australia and Central Asia are not happy on this development and exercising their clout and influence to stop TCP from exporting this cotton.
Amidst this trading of accusations and counter accusations between the ginners and the spinners, the Federal Commerce Minister, Abdul Razak Dawood has convened a meeting of Federal Textile Board on April 16 at Islamabad.
Officials say that about 50 participants would be putting their heads together to work out a new operational plan to reap contamination-free cotton next Kharif. Invited at this meeting are the federal agriculture minister and the four provincial agricultural ministers, top spinners, ginners and the growers.
Before April 16 meeting at Islamabad, a small group is holding a session next Thursday (April 11) at Karachi to prepare outlines of the operational plan that would be put for approval before the big gathering.
The idea of holding a meeting of this small group is to quietly iron out all the differences between the ginners and spinners and set a stage where a much bigger group — growers, ginners, spinners, exporters, importers, bureaucrats, ministers and all segments of textile sector show consensus on an operational plan.
Government has its own stakes in the cultivation of contamination-free cotton. In their tax returns, the spinners, considered to be the most rich segment of Pakistani business, take advantage of trash contained cotton and declare 18 per cent wastages in processing.
Contamination-free or low-contaminated cotton, officials say should help in improving productivity, quality and also profitability of the textile mills and generate good amount of revenue for the public exchequer.
Provincial governments in Punjab and Sindh are taking adequate measures to ensure quality control and grading of the cotton. Necessary changes have either already been made or is being made in the Cotton Control Act of 1966.
A study of ginneries in Pakistan by a German consultant firm in January this year has suggested some investment to upgrade ginning facilities would do a lot good in processing good quality cotton. The government had given this assignment to Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda).
Officials do not appear to be disappointed on their failure to achieve objective of reaping one million bales of contamination-free cotton in the current season.
In the current season, the government has selected Rahim Yar Khan in Punjab and Ghotki in Sindh for the cultivation of contamination-free cotton this season. The Textile Board is expected to enlarge this area in its meeting on April 16 at Islamabad.
