KARACHI: Total phutti (seed cotton) received by ginning factories from this year’s crop has reached 2.75 million bales as of Sept 15, a growth of 4.73 per cent compared to 2.626m bales during the same period of last year.

According to fortnightly report covering the period from Sept 1 to 15, phutti arrivals in Punjab posted a remarkable growth of 27.61pc, but fell by 8pc in Sindh.

Punjab has so far produced 1.19m cotton bales, a rise of 259,068 bales over the same period last year when production stood at around 932,000 bales.

Despite unprecedented floods which have wreaked havoc on not only rural but also on many urban areas of Punjab, the standing cotton crop has escaped from any major damage.

Sindh, which harvested larger cotton crop last season (2013-14), has shown a dismal performance by producing 1.559m bales so far, a drop of 134,726 bales compared to 1.695m during the year-ago period.

However, Balochistan, which has very small cotton crop, has so far produced 20,200 cotton bales, declining by 4,100 bales (16.87pc) as against last season.

Overall flow of phutti during the Sept 1-15 fortnight was 988,281 bales, a growth of 97,368 bales during the same period of last season when production was 900,913 bales.

Analyst Naseem Usman said that cotton crop grown in the river beds in Punjab has been totally washed away by floods. However, this cotton is mostly consumed domestically by growers to meet their annual demand.

Meanwhile, the spinning industry has so far purchased around 2.314m bales compared to 2.211m in the same period last season.

Private-sector exporters also purchased sizeable cotton to meet their commitments, lifting around 97,615 bales as against 106,086 a year earlier.

The ginners are currently holding 338,111 bales compared to 309,008 they held in the same period last year. Presently, around 339 ginning units are operating in Punjab and 241 in Sindh.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2014