RAHIM YAR KHAN, Nov 17: The quality of Pakistani silver fibre is the best in the world. This was stated by Gen Herwig M Strolz, the director-general of the International Trade Manufacturers Federation (ITMF), Switzerland. He was talking to reporters during his visit to the Pervaiz Elahi Agriculture Model Farms and different cotton ginning factories along with an ITMF delegation; International Cotton Association Limited (ICAL), England; APMA Cotton Group, Brazil; Patspin India Limited and Gul Ahmed Textile group, Pakistan.

He said the cotton demand in the world would increase beyond imagination if Pakistan cotton industry produced contamination free cotton.

Gen Strolz said the quality cotton products could not be produced without Pakistani cotton because its silver fibre was the strongest and longest in the world.

ICAL president Fritz Alexander Grobien said after the WTO’s implementation the developing countries like Pakistan had got a golden chance to increase the sale of its products in European and other markets by making best quality cotton products.

Appreciating the Pakistani agricultural scientists, he said the world could not find the best quality cotton if they had not invented the virus free cotton seeds.

He expected that the quality of Pakistani cotton products would improve in the next few years because of the contamination free cotton.

APMA Cotton Group chief executive Andrew G. MacDonald said the latest and long fibre varieties should be cultivated in all parts of the country.

He said that Pakistan could not fulfil the demand of cotton products in the international markets because these varieties were not being cultivated in Sindh province.

Haji Muhammad Ibrahim, the former chairman of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA), said that maximum ginning factories in Rahim Yar Khan were producing contamination free cotton, but the textile mills were not purchasing this cotton on premium which was desperating for ginners and farmers.

Gul Ahmed Textile Mills director Zahid Bashir assured the cotton ginners that cotton on premium would be purchased so that the production of contamination free cotton could be encouraged in Rahim Yar Khan.