KARACHI: Pakistan is poised to harvest bumper cotton crop of around 15 million bales this season (2014-15) as phutti (seed cotton) arrivals have increased by 11 per cent year-on-year so far.

According to Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association’s (PCGA) data released on Friday, 14.838m bales reached ginners from the cotton fields up to April 1, compared to 13.385m bales in the same period of last year.

The fortnightly flow of phutti (March 15 to April 1) also rose to 52,810 bales compared to 16,208 bales during the same fortnight a year earlier.

Punjab has so far produced 10.864m bales, a growth of 12.87pc (1.238m bales) over the last year.

Sindh’s production by April 1 was 3.974m bales, or 5.7pc (214,368 bales) higher than last year.

Exporters purchased higher quantity of cotton this season at 474,091 bales as against 382,006 bales in the same period last season. Similarly, spinning mills also lifted larger quantity at 14.389m bales compared to 12.307m bales last year.

Due to higher consumption, the unsold stocks lying with ginners stood lower at 449,919 bales compared to 696,563 bales in the same period of last season.

A higher number of ginning units are still operating in Punjab as 45 factories are functioning compared to 19 last year. By contrast, only two ginneries are operating in Sindh.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2015

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