MULTAN, Jan 4: Cotton arrival at the ginneries across the country by Dec 31 has shown a decline of 4.05 per cent as compared to the corresponding period last year.

According to a report of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association, some 8.38 million cotton bales have arrived at the 906 operational ginneries in the country by Dec 31, 2003, as against 8.73 million bales during the same period of previous year.

The Punjab has shown a marginal decline of 0.73 per cent with the arrival of 6.72 million bales so far as against 6.77 million bales of previous year. The 15.66 per cent decrease in cotton arrival in Sindh, however, is alarming as only 1.6 million bales have reached the market as compared to 1.9 million bales of the previous year.

The Standing Committee on Cotton Crop Assessment had estimated the crop for the year 2003-2004 in its meeting held here on Dec 22 last at 10 million bales claiming that the Punjab will produce 7.6 million bales, Sindh 2.3 million bales and Balochistan and NWFP jointly 0.1 million bales.

The latest PCGA report shows that the textile sector has so far procured 6.35 million cotton bales while it had procured 6.54 million bales during the previous year.

The exporters this year have so far lifted cotton three times more than their procurements during the same period of previous year. This year the exporters have procured 155,668 bales by Dec 31 as compared to 45,676 bales in the same period of corresponding previous year.

The unsold stock lying with the ginneries is reported as 1.87 million bales as compared to 2.14 million bales of the previous year. The noticeable point in the PCGA report about cotton arrival this time is that it does not contain the quantity of bales pressed in tonnage.

It is pertinent to mention that the Federal Food, Agriculture and Livestock Ministry has recently denounced the PCGA for pressing bales less than that of the standard weight 170kg of a bale. The PCGA figures were showing an average weight of 163kg of a bale prior to the open criticism of Minfal on the subject. - A