KARACHI: The country has produced 11.33 million bales up to January 15, showing a growth of 7.58 per cent over the corresponding period of last year when 10.54m bales were produced. This means that around 0.79m more bales have been produced this season (2017-18) so far.

While both Sindh and Punjab recorded higher cotton production, the former has achieved higher growth at 12.59pc on producing 4.25m bales as against 3.77m bales produced in the same period last season.

Sindh has produced around 0.48m more bales than last year mainly due to lesser pest attacks.

On the other hand, Punjab was unable to match Sindh because of heavier rains, pest attacks as well as the heat wave which retarded plant growth.

Accordingly, Punjab cotton production grew by only 4.79pc at 7.09m bales which resulted in production of 0.32m more bales over the same period last year when 6.77m bales were produced.

There is a growing concern amongst the traders and textile industry over the falling cotton production for the last consecutive three crops. Exporters have asked the government to supply certified cotton seed if per acre yield has to be improved.

Moreover, shifting of crop concerned all the stakeholders because growers are opting to sugarcane crop as it is easy to handle and one single rooter could give three crops of cane.

The only encouraging development is that even during the last fortnight the flow of phutti (seed cotton) from cotton fields into ginneries remained higher at 0.23m bales as against 0.17m bales in the same period last year. This shows that around 56,787 more bales reached ginning units during Jan 1-15 period.

Cotton purchasing by spinners has been slightly higher this year at 9.95m bales compared to 9.24m bales in the corresponding period last year. Similarly, exporters also booked more at 0.22m bales as against 0.19m bales last season.

The ginners are currently holding around 1.16m bales of unsold cotton which stood higher over last year when they held 1.09m bales of unsold stocks. The number of ginning units still operating was also high at 476 with 326 in Punjab and 150 in Sindh.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2018