ISLAMABAD, Nov 6: Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan said on Thursday the government was considering a package to offset the impact of sudden rise in cotton prices.

Addressing at a joint news conference here, after an informal meeting with all the stakeholders of the cotton sector, including growers, ginners and textile mill owners, the minister said the package would be announced by the next week on the basis of what had been discussed in Thursday’s meeting.

According to insiders at the meeting, the government side only listened to the relevant stakeholders and deferred responding to the issues raised by them to some future date.

The team of economic managers will soon hold a meeting to consider the issues raised by the stakeholders and come up with a viable strategy to meet the situation effectively, Humayun Akhtar added.

Mr Khan said the current increase in cotton prices mostly reflected the impact of international market and it had no link with any damage reportedly caused to the standing crop.

Pakistan needs 12 million bales of cotton this year for consumption, he said, adding whereas “we were expecting a production of 10 million bales this year.”

In reply to a question, the minister said the government believed in maintaining consistency in its policies and he felt that the on-going policies would continue in the largest interest of the country.

Answering another question, he said the government was also considering further measures to provide facilities to cotton importers. He said that there was no plan to impose any ban on export of raw cotton.

Citing an example, the minister says China produces 30 million bales of cotton per annum, but this year it is facing a shortfall of about seven million bales.

Minister of State for Agriculture Sikander Hayat Khan Bosan said that he along with the finance minister and the chairman of Zarai Taraqiati Bank had visited various cotton growing areas to have first-hand knowledge about the production of cotton crop.

He said a report was being prepared about the losses to the cotton crop and farmers, which he said, would be duly compensated for such losses.

He said the cotton arrival in ginning factories on November 1 showed an increase of 24 per cent as compared to the last year, which was very encouraging.

Mr Bosan expressed the hope that despite all odds, the revised target of 10 million bales of cotton would be achieved easily.

He ruled out the impression that the damage to cotton production resulted in rise in the price of the commodity.