KARACHI: The country’s cotton production crawled a little over one per cent to 6.044 million bales over 5.984m bales in the corresponding period last year.

According to fortnightly (Oct 1-15) figures issued by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners’ Association (PCGA), the country could not make any major breakthrough in production this season as production grew by a nominal 59,708 bales.

With Sindh’s production shrinking due to initial setback caused by water shortage during sowing, there are dim chances that any substantial growth could be witnessed this season.

The figures issued by ginners’ body figures on Thursday disclosed that Sindh produced 2.920m bales, down 1.06pc from 2.951m bales in same period last year — decreasing by 31,210 bales.

However, there was a modest nominal improvement in production from Punjab but it would not be sufficient enough even to match last year’s output, cotton analysts said.

The output of cotton in Punjab (up to Oct 15) stood at 3.123m bales, higher by 3 per cent, from 3.032m bales in same period last year – an increase of 90,918 bales.

During the last fortnight, around 2.023m bales were processed by ginning units, showing an uptick of 30,310 bales over 1.993m bales in the corresponding period of last season.ss

Other details show that textile mills have so far purchased a higher quantity of cotton at 4.331m bales compared to 4.232 million bales in the same period last year. However, exporters lifted fewer at 75,797 bales as against 180,602 bales last season.

Ginners, on the other hand, are holding slightly greater quantity of unsold cotton stocks at 1.636m bales versus 1.571m bales in corresponding period last year.

There was also a decrease in the number ginning units currently operating in the country with Punjab at 622 units and Sindh 287 factories, down from Punjab 686 and Sindh 294 units in same period year.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2018