KARACHI, Dec 30: Amid selective buying for quality premium the local cotton market remained firm for second consecutive day. There was growing scarcity of quality cotton as ginners were holding back some of the stocks.

However, the market remained firm and steady with sellers still marking time. There was general impression that sentiment would remain subdued till the new year eve and opening of world markets.

According to market analysts the re-entry of China into the world cotton market would be a decisive factor and much of the future trend would depend on it. “Once China moves into the world market raw cotton prices are bound to rise”.

Due to firming up of prices on ready counter the Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) also raised its spot rates by Rs15 to Rs3,200 per maund.

The only silver lining which one could see is that despite the fact that there would be a sizable shortage of lint cotton against domestic consumption the local and world cotton market rates are almost equal.

The vice-chairman, Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA), Mahmood Ahmed who was on a visit to KCA, told Dawn that the crop would not be more than 9 million bales and this would leave a gap of around 2 million bales between demand and supply.

He further said that the heavy rains in August this year actually caused a severe pest attack of army boll-worm but this could have been contained to a greater extent provided the agriculture department managed to air-lift required pesticides.

Due to non-availability of pesticides, he said around two million bales were lost, causing colossal financial losses to the tune of $1 billion. As a result of this, Mr Mahmood said the textile exports, which constitutes over 65 per cent of the total exports, would suffer.

Last year, he said out of $11 billion exports earning over $7 billion came from textiles’ export. He expressed his utter dismay that cotton being a mainstay for the national economy yet the people at the helm of affairs did not take required measures to protect the crop.

No matter how much cotton is imported from abroad, he said, our cotton has its own advantages in term of strength, colour and above all it is hand picked cotton which is now a days rare in the world.

On the ready counter around 2,600 bales changed hands till late in the afternoon as under: 1,000 bales from station Sanghar were done at Rs2,950; 1,000 bales from Khairpur were done at Rs3,200 and 1,600 bales from Ranipur were done at Rs3,325.