SANGHAR, Nov 15: Farmers, ginners and traders have accused textile mills of operating a cartel to manipulate prices of cotton and appealed to the president and prime minister to order the Trading Corporation of Pakistan to buy cotton to safeguard interest of small farmers and traders.

Cotton traders Master Sher Mohammad, Hassan Askari, Mir Nizamani, Shams Nizamani of Small Growers Association and Searoo Mal told Dawn that they were facing a financial crunch due to strict policy of banks and farmers were pressing the ginners and traders to make payments because most of them could not keep the stocks for a longer period.

They said that the textile millers knew this weak point and started slowing down purchase of cotton bales to cause a drop in prices.

Master Sher Mohammad said that according to an estimate more than 5 million maunds of cotton worth more than Rs8 billion if calculated at prevailing rates was laying in 85 ginning factories only in Sanghar.

Most of the farmers had dumped their produce without fixing prices and they would suffer the most in the event of a further fall in prices, he said.

Hassan Askari alleged that the textile mill owners were operating a cartel because they had no genuine competitor and enjoyed monopoly in the market.

If the TCP started buying cotton it would benefit farmers who badly needed money to purchase inputs for wheat cultivation and could not wait further for rise in cotton prices, he said and appealed to the president and prime minister to order the TCP to start purchasing cotton.