LAHORE: Domestic cotton production will remain drastically lower than projected for the crop year 2023-24 as the total output will be hardly 8.5 million bales against the initial target of 12.8m, a loss of 4.3m bales, reveals the data released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Assoc­iation on Wednesday.

The PCGA data up to Dec 31 shows that 8.17m bales of cotton have reached the ginning factories across the country which is higher by 3.5m bales over 4.6m bales produced in the same period last year. Ginners say that hardly 0.5m more bales may be produced during the rest of the crop year.

However, the output so far is 77 per cent more than the total production of the previous year.

Province-wise data shows that 4.79m bales arrived in the ginning factories of Punjab during the period, which is 48pc more than the previous year but about 4.0m bales less than the initial allocated target.

In Sindh, 4.49m bales arrived in the ginning units, which is a record 121pc more than last year.

Of the total output, textile mills bought 7.3m bales and 0.565m bales are lying with the ginners, and so far 0.175m bales have been exported mostly to Indonesia and Vietnam.

At least 244 ginning factories are currently operational across the country against last year’s 471 units though then the cotton production was extraordinarily lower.

Cotton Ginners Forum chairman Ihsanul Haq says that the Punjab Agriculture Department had been projecting a very good harvest this season after many years but, perhaps, adverse weather conditions and a severe whitefly attack damaged the crop.

Even then there were expectations that this year’s total domestic production would be up to 8.5m bales, he says, adding that the latest PCGA report reveals that against the anticipations of the arrival of over 0.2m bales in the Dec 16-31 fortnight, only 0.147m bales reached the factories.

“It is now being feared that the total domestic cotton production will be less than 8.5m bales.”

Naseem Usman of the Cotton Brokers Association says that the country will need to import 3.0m bales to meet local requirements. The prevailing crop conditions, he says, hint at a stable cotton market because of demand and supply factors.

Mr Haq predicts a growing trend to plant cotton in February and March against the previous practice of sowing it during April because Sindh harvested a good crop this year mainly due to the best weather conditions available to the crop by sowing cotton around 40 days ahead of the previous routine.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2024