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LAHORE, Aug 16: The proposed Pakistan Cotton Standardization Ordinance, 2002, is expected to be put before the cabinet for its approval in two weeks.
The draft ordinance seeks to set up a cotton standards institute and the creation of cotton standards, commerce minister Abdul Razak Dawood told a news conference following a meeting of the Federal Textile Board here on Friday.
He said the proposed ordinance had been drafted by the federal government after seeking consent of the provinces and it would be helpful in moving towards “grading our cotton”.
He said the meeting had decided to build on reasonable success achieved by the government in its “clean cotton campaign” started last year in Rahim Yar Khan in Punjab and Ghotki in Sindh.
He said it was decided to expand the scope of the campaign for the “production of contamination free cotton or less contaminated cotton” to two more districts—Bahawalpur in Punjab and Sanghar in Sindh—this year.
The minister claimed that the “efforts for production of clean cotton had paid off.” In some districts, he added, “contamination had come down to as low as 4-6 grams per bale.” But in others, it was still as high as 17 grams a bale. “But, it is still lower than the previous level of 24 grams per bale.”
He claimed that the Trading Corporation of Pakistan had lifted low-contamination cotton and is exporting it. He said this cotton has fetched two (US) cents per pound more in the world market. He said the rate is not as high as one would like it to be. However, he said, it will help introduce clean cotton from Pakistan in the world markets thus fetching higher price in the coming years.
The minister said the meeting had decided that ginners will be given (by the millers) a premium of Rs150, Rs75 and Rs50 per bale of cotton with 1.5 gram, 2.5 gram, and three grams contamination, respectively.
Last year, the millers had promised to give a premium of Rs200 per bale on zero contamination and Rs75 on 2.5 gram contamination which, the ginners say, was never paid.
“It’s impossible to achieve zero contamination. It was a wrong decision that is why we decided to change the slabs this year,” said the minister. However, he added, in order to qualify for the premium the ginners would have to maintain “moisture to the level of 8.5 per cent a bale in accordance with the world standards.”
The meeting that lasted for over three hours was also attended by federal agriculture minister Khair Muhammad Junejo, provincial agriculture minister Khurshid Zaman Qureishi, and representatives of textile mills, the KCA, growers, ginners and Smeda.
BALOCHISTAN: Dawood said Balochistan had produced 93,000 bales of grade I and II cotton bales this year. But, he added, “it did not have sufficient capacity to gin its cotton which is bad. Out of three factories established in Balochistan, two are functioning.” One more ginning factory is being set up in the province in order to enable the growers to get their cotton ginned in the province. He said Balochistan had been told to “grow cotton, protect seeds, and gin it within the province.”
“Further, the growers there have been told not use any variety other than CM109 and Nayab 78 which are being distributed amongst them free of cost at present. They’ve been asked to pay attention to the varietal purity. It has been done to ensure the quality of cotton in that province. They have also been urged to specify an area for growing organic cotton that is in great demand the world over,” Dawood said.
GINNING: Terming ginning as the weakest link in the whole textile chain, Dawood said the 1,200 ginning factories in the country are not working according to the world standards due to their old and outdated machinery, technology and management style.
He said they would have either to “modernize themselves or get out of the business.” Smeda has been asked to prepare the ginning standards for the ginning industry which would be enforced by the provinces.
“After Aug 1, 2004 no outdated ginning factory will be allowed to operate. Each factory will have to spend only Rs1.5 million to restructure itself and meet the international (ginning) standards which is a paltry amount for them.” A ginning institute is also being set up in Multan in the near future.
He said three ginning factories in Rahim Yar Khan, Multan and Bahawalpur had already been working on their modernization with the help of Smeda and under the supervision of a French company. He said restructuring of the ginning factories would reduce their electricity bills and help them save other unnecessary costs.
