March 05, 2008	Wednesday	Safar 26, 1429

KARACHI, March 4: Despite some improvement in the flow of phutti (seed cotton) during February the overall production of cotton remained short by 8.49 per cent at 11.201 million bales compared to last year’s output of 12.239 million bales.

Figures released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners’ Association (PCGA) on Tuesday show that the arrival of phutti from fields to ginneries during last month was higher by 244,865 bales at 556,163 bales.

However, it is interesting to note that the phutti arrival in Sindh remained higher by 9.14 per cent at 2.512 million bales compared to last year’s arrivals at 2.301 million bales.

But short crop in Punjab continue to have dampening impact on overall production of cotton, where the phutti arrival was short by 12.58 per cent at 8.688 million bales as against 9.938 million bales recorded in the same period last year.

There was lesser off-take of cotton by mills at 9.636 million bales compared to 10.927 million bales purchased in the corresponding period of last year.

Consequently, there were less unsold stocks with ginners at 1.205 million bales as against 1.463 million bales in the same period last year.