KARACHI, Aug 15: In a new drawn up strategy, the rich textile mill owners of central Punjab and the politically powerful growers of cotton belt in Sindh and south Punjab are planning to join hands to eliminate the role of ginners.

All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) is proposing the concept of ‘Custom Ginning’. This system reduces the role of ginnery to a mere service provider as the textile mill owner will purchase cotton directly from the grower.

Under this strategy, the number of ginneries is proposed to be drastically cut down from the existing 1,220 in the country. At present there is more than 20 million bales ginning capacity available in the country. “We want to bring it down to 10 to 11 million bales ginning capacity,” a senior official involved in the planning of cotton policy informed Dawn.

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) has already been given the task to restructure ginneries in the country. With the help of a foreign consultant, Smeda is now engaged in identifying those ginneries which are to be closed down. Revamping and renovation will be done in a small number of ginneries to improve the quality of ginning and ensure availability of clean cotton.

This new concept has been elaborated in the Aptma document — Long Term Cotton Policy. This document is being placed before a special meeting on cotton policy issues to be held on Friday at Lahore. The meeting was originally scheduled for August 7, but had to be put off because of a series of meetings convened in Islamabad. The federal agricultural minister will preside over the meeting in which agricultural ministers and top bureaucrats from the federal and provincial governments will attend. More than 50 participants have been drawn up from the farmers, spinners, value added textile products manufacturers and exporters and ginners.

At present the growers sell their seedcotton to a middle man who either buys it for himself or is a commission agent of the ginneries. But once the cotton is delivered to the ginnery, it ceases to be the property of the grower. The middle man or the ginner is responsible for the loss or profit on the sale of lint cotton.

In case of loss, the growers suffer as ginners either do not make them payment or delay it to the extent that it is beyond the capacity of the grower who is forced to accept a small amount.

The textile mill owners now want to purchase cotton directly from the grower. Aptma claims that the role of middle man will be eliminated and also its profit under the new arrangement. Hence, the income of farmer will increase. A direct contact between farmer and the textile mill owner, Aptma document contends, will make the farmer more responsive to the needs of the industry. But those involved in cotton trade are not ready to buy this idea. The new middle man will come to negotiate with the grower on behalf of the textile mill owner. The small cotton grower will continue to be exploited as ever before. Powerful feudals will be new ginners who would also act as middle man to buy cotton from the small growers.

Ginners literally rolled in gold during 1994 and 1995 when cotton prices shoot up phenomenally. A cut in cotton supply ensured quick and good money to the ginneries from the mill owners but no benefit was passed on to the growers.

The proposed Cotton Standardization Ordinance will also ensure the elimination of all those ginneries which are found to be sub-standard and unable to meet the requirements of new arrangement. The provincial governments are being equipped with trained manpower to ensure monitoring of the ginneries.

Aptma has a logic for the support of the new system. Pakistan’s cotton, it says, has not been able to get even the internationally rated ‘B-index’ in the world export price. In 1990-91 when Pakistan’s cotton got the best average unit price of 66.30 cents for a pound in the export market, the B-index rated cotton was priced at 77.07. In the last four years the average unit price of Pakistani cotton is ranging between 43 to 46 cents a pound which too remains less than average unit price of B-index.