KARACHI: The country produced 2.36 million bales of cotton up to Sept 15, the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) said on Monday.

Ginners are currently holding around 445,000 bales from the new crop. Textile mills purchased about 1.82m bales and private exporters lifted over 95,000 bales. Out of the 1,000 ginning units in Sindh and Punjab, only 574 are functioning, the association added.

Phutti arrivals in Punjab were recorded at 846,238 bales while 1,519,317 bales reached ginneries of Sindh.

The country is expected to produce around 13m bales this season and the figure could be much higher if the current month passes by without any pest attacks in Punjab, PCGA Chairman Dr Jassumal Leemani said.

Talking to Dawn, the PCGA chairman urged the government to immediately call a meeting of cotton crop stakeholders – growers, ginners and textile mills – to frame a sustainable cotton policy.

The country is losing billions of rupees due to low yield of cotton crop as no certified seed is being selected or recommended by the government, he claimed.

The PCGA chairman urged ginners to improve crop quality so that cotton could get better price in domestic and world markets.

Dr Leemani said that in a meeting held on Monday, ginners expressed serious concern over the lack of interest being shown by the government in cotton crop.

He said around 50 per cent of cotton crop in lower Sindh has been damaged by severe pink bollworm attack, causing huge losses to farmers in Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar, Badin, Hyderabad and Sanghar.

Talking to Dawn, Karachi Cotton Brokers Forum Chairman Naseem Usman estimated that the ongoing season’s cotton production (up to Sept 30) could be around 3.2m bales – an increase of some 0.6m bales over last year.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2017