LAHORE: Cotton production by the end of September surpassed the total output of the crop recorded in the last season, reveals the data released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA).

However, there has been an abnormal difference between the crop statistics of the PCGA and Punjab agriculture authorities.

As per the PCGA figures cotton arrivals at ginning factories across the country reached 5.025 million bales by Sept 30, which is 71.15 per cent more when compared with 2.936m bales for the same period last year; rather it exceeds the total lint output of 5m bales last year.

Business Club Commodities’ Hasseb Ahmed says textile mills have so far purchased 4.179m bales against 2.319m bales last year, an increase of 80.2pc, whereas exporters have picked over 0.248m bales against just 4,900 bales last year. According to him, Fast Trade Commodities Services was prominent among the exporters.

PCGA, official data show big gap in Punjab’s output

The fortnightly flow was recorded at 1.091m bales as opposed to 0.749m bales during the same fortnight (Sept 15-30) last year.

Cotton Ginners Forum Chairman Ihsanul Haq attributes more than expected phutti arrivals at ginning units to haste in picking by the growers on fears of whitefly attack.

He says the pest attack and weather conditions have hit the cotton quality, particularly in Punjab, where so far 2.069m bales have arrived in ginning factories, registering an increase of 34pc over the same period last year.

Lint production in Sindh has been reported as 2.956m bales, which is 113pc more than the same period last year.

Wide gap in output data

The Punjab Crop Reporting Services (CRS) claims as of Sept 30 the province produced 3.366m bales, registering a 64pc increase over 2.047m bales produced in the same period last year.

A notification of the Punjab CRS issued on Sept 30 says the average cotton boll weight this season is estimated at 2.93g, 13.1pc more than last year’s average of 2.59g and thus the average per acre yield reported so far is 11.76 maunds as compared to 7.94 maunds last year.

Referring to the claim, Mr Haq says that a huge difference of around 1.2m bales in the PCGA and Punjab CRS data is unlikely. The Punjab government believes that some ginners are involved in “under-reporting” of cotton arrivals to avoid taxes, he says, adding that earlier the Punjab Agriculture Department (Extension) had claimed cultivation of cotton in the province at 4.8m acres, while the CRS report put the acreage as 3.5m acres but the report was not made public.

He says that the Punjab government had later collected cotton cultivation data through Suparco, a federal entity engaged in space sciences, but its report was also not made public.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2023