MULTAN, Nov 14: Reports of lint import from India via Wagha border have upset agriculturists and ginners in southern Punjab. Some analysts, however, describe such reports to be a millers’ ploy to depress the local cotton market.
But, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) does not see any harm in importing Indian lint as local production of cotton is not sufficient to meet country’s consumption needs.
Textile mills, it is learnt, are going to import 280,000 bales from India by road. More than 4,000 bales have already arrived and are awaiting customs clearance, while another consignment of 10,000 bales is on its way.Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association Chairman Suhail Mehmood Harral strongly opposed the import of lint and said that the government had not taken the association into confidence before taking this decision.
He said import must not be allowed as it could hurt the interests of local growers. “The local cotton should be purchased before opting for foreign lint”.
He said in view of the expected shortfall, the government should enforce a quota system for textile mills restricting them not to purchase lint from the international market unless local cotton crop was fully consumed.
Aptma Punjab Chairman Mian Tariq Mehmood felt that import of lint from India would not affect the local market because the expected domestic production was much less than the local needs and millers were compelled to import 2.5 million bales. The imported lint was cheaper than the local stuff, he claimed.
Farmers Vision Forum President Khawja Muhammad Shoaib rejecting the Aptma’s claim said that Pakistani cotton was by far the cheapest in the world.
He said that it was unfair on the part of Aptma to purchase costly lint from India just to pressurise the local producers.
"They use such tactics to depress the local market and to ask the government to put a ban on cotton exports on the plea that the local output is too small to meet even local needs," he added.
He asked the millers to pay the same price to the local growers at which rate they were importing the foreign lint.
Khurshid Ahmed Kanju, a progressive farmer, termed the lint import from India a big conspiracy against the local cotton growers. “Every country protects and promotes the interest of its farmers but in Pakistan nobody is ready to tell what quantity of lint is being imported and why imports have been allowed when cotton season is at its peak in the country,” he said, adding that it was an deliberate attempt to sabotage the local cotton market.
Giving details of growers’ miseries, he said first it were costly pesticides, oil and fertilisers which brought a majority of small growers under debt and at harvesting stage, ginners and millers were there to rob them of their legitimate profit.
He said millers had strong connections in Islamabad while the farming community was disorganised and had a few people at the helm of affairs to defend their interests.
He said that the government had provided Rs82.3 million to the ginners for paying Rs50 premium on each maund of clean cotton to the growers but the ginners were not passing on the same to the farmers.
