October 17, 2006	Tuesday	Ramazan 23, 1427

ISLAMABAD, Oct 16: The ministry of textile industry will complete the purchase of 100,000 bales of clean and standardisation cotton within next few months in consultation with the provincial agriculture departments.

An official announcement by the ministry here on Monday said that so far out of 84,187 maund of seed-cotton received at five ginning factories, 46,521 maund had been certified as clean cotton phutti.

Of this clean cotton phutti, 2,400 clean cotton bales have been ginned, out of which 200 bales have been sold to the exporters and spinning sector. These cotton bales, which were of grade-II with staple length 1-1/16”, have been sold at a premium of around Rs250 per bale more than the market price.

The remaining ginning factories would start operations soon to make clean cotton bales. The government has set aside an amount of Rs70 million for payment to growers/suppliers of clean cotton, which would be shared by the federal government and the provincial governments on 50:50 basis.

The clean cotton programme will lead to a culture of producing standardised and clean cotton bales in the country, which in turn make clean cotton bales available to the local industry.