KARACHI: The country recorded 7.94 per cent growth in cotton production up to April 15, producing 851,999 more bales at 11.579 million bales, over the corresponding period last year.

This is the third consecutive season when cotton production remained much below the government’s initial target of 14.1m bales which was later revised downwards to 12.6m bales.

According to official figures of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) up to April 15, cotton production stood at 11.579m bales compared to 10.727m bales produced in the same period last year.

There is an urgent need that the government should announce cotton policy to sort out issues confronting the cash crop because for the last six years on an average around 2.5m to 3m bales are being imported to meet the shortfall.

However, reports suggest that the government plans to allocate Rs 2.5 billion towards endowment fund for cotton research for improving quality as well as production of the cash crop.

The country produced a bumper cotton crop in 2011-12, producing 14.8m bales against a demand of 14.1m bales for the year. However, thereafter, the crop failed and on an average 10m to 11m bales were produced for the last three consecutive years.

The province of Sindh recorded 12.31 per cent higher cotton production, helping boost overall production. The province produced 4.253m bales as against 3.787m bales produced in the same period last season. Overall, 466,312 more bales were produced.

Against this, Punjab produced 7.325m bales thus showing a growth of 5.56 per cent over the corresponding period of last season when production stood at 6.940m bales.

It is encouraging to note that spinners have purchased higher quantity of local cotton at 10.992m bales as against 10.259m bales last season. Similarly, exporters also lifted larger quantity at 216,615 bales compared to 202,356 bales last year.

The ginners are currently holding 369,869 bales of unsold stocks compared to 265,597 bales held by them last year. Currently 14 ginning units are operational, out of which 10 in Punjab and 4 in Sindh.

The fortnightly (April 1 to 15) flow of phutti (seed cotton) continues to be higher over the last year at 7,985 bales as against 1,445 bales recorded last season.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2018