KARACHI, Jan 18: Phutti arrival from cotton fields to ginneries remained slow by 13.68 per cent at 9.974 million bales, compared to the corresponding period of last year when production stood at 11.555 million bales.

Phutti arrival from fields to ginneries in the Punjab continued to lag behind by a big margin of 18.65 per cent, thereby, dampening the overall production of cotton in the country.

According to the statistics issued by Pakistan Cotton Ginners’ Association (PCGA), arrival of phutti remained slow in Punjab and up to Jan 15, 7.615 million bales were produced as against 9.361 million bales recorded in the same period last year. The production was short by around 1.746 million bales or 18.65 per cent.

However, arrival of phutti in Sindh remained on the higher side, but it could not cover the big shortfall being recorded in Punjab.

A total of 2.359 million bales were produced in Sindh during period under review, showing an increase of 7.53 per cent.

Cotton economy analysts believe that the country may not produce more than 11 million bales during the current season and this would leave a big gap between demand and supply.

Presently, over 10 million spindles operating in the country need around 15 million bales and this would leave a gap of around four million bales between the actual demand and supply.

The only redeeming feature of the current situation was that during the last fortnight (Jan 1 to 15), the flow of phutti improved considerably and stood at 869,911 bales, compared to 473,288 bales recorded during the fortnight of Dec 15 to 31, 2007. The severe damage to standing cotton crop in the Southern Punjab and Upper Sindh by mealybug and Curl Virus Leave (VCL) had been the major reason for short crop.

When the pest attacked the standing crop at its initial period, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) was unable to tackle with the situation as there were no such pesticides available which could be affective and vast damage was caused to the crop.

In order to meet the consumption gap, the government recently allowed spinners to import short staple cotton from India through road network. However, some logistic and storage problems are still being faced to making cotton arrival smooth through Wagha border.

The textile mills lifted around 8.071 million bales from the current crop as against 9.464 million bales they purchased in the corresponding period last year. Private sector exporters, however, maintained their level by lifting around 81,800 bales compared to 81,350 bales last year.

The unsold stocks lying with ginners stood at 1.821 million bales, compared to 2.009 million bales recorded in the same period last year.

Cotton analyst Naseem Usman told Dawn that the country will have to spend a huge amount of around Rs70 billion on import of cotton to meet the domestic industry’s demand.

Faced with unprecedented gas and power shortage and load- shedding, he said, the industry may reduce its operation to avoid colossal losses and this would be the only factor which may reduce cotton consumption.