KARACHI, June 14: Textile mills imported a record 4.216 million bales of cotton worth about Rs75 billion during 10 months ending May 2008 from worldwide sources, cotton sources said here on Saturday.

Referring to provisional data of the Federal Bureau of Statistics for August 2007 and May 2008, Cotton Brokers Forum Chairman Naseem Usman said the mills imported about 716,796 tons of cotton.

Usman pointed out that about 258,000 bales were imported during May 2008 and anticipated that about 300,000 more bales worth Rs5 billion would arrive in the country.

Textile mills have imported cotton from US, Brazil, Egypt, Turkmenistan, Sudan, Russian states, Nigeria, Cameroon and Turkey.

Pakistan is estimated to have produced a total of 11.352m bales of cotton till May 1.—APP