MULTAN, Aug 27: There is no way out except to fashion the system of grading and quality in cotton marketing in the country to compete in the international market both for raw cotton and its value-added products.

This was the unanimous reaction of the various cotton market stakeholders when contacted to have their viewpoint on the reported statement of the chairman of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association that ginners were suspending processing clean cotton from this year (2004-05) owing to a variety of reasons.

Among main reasons cited by the PCGA chairman to do away with the ginning of quality cotton were high contamination of non-cotton elements in the phutti (seed cotton) while transportation in open trolleys from farm to the ginneries and non-payment of premium price by the millers to encourage production of contamination-free cotton.

The PCGA chairman had also vowed that ginners would not unload the phutti which would be brought to the ginneries in open trolleys and instead favoured the method of transporting phutti in jute bags, which according to him was less hazardous than the open trolleys.

When talked the vice president of Pakistan Central Cotton Committee, Dr Ibad Badar Saddiqi said that the whole chain of cotton business from farm to the weaving was with the private sector and, therefore, the government had a little regulatory role to play in order to keep the market level-playing field for all the stakeholders.

He said the main focus of the government was to put in place an effective cotton grading system in the country while the issue of contamination would be addressed automatically once the grading system came in vogue.

He said the ginners' act to not accept phutti transported in open trolleys would be tantamount to the violation of Cotton Control Act which had recently been amended to do away with the use of jute bags in cotton transportation from farm to the ginneries.

Chairman Farmers Vision Forum Khwaja Muhammad Shuaib accused the middlemen for mixing non-cotton contents in phutti like water and salt while transporting it to the ginneries in open trolleys. He said the growers had always cooperated whenever the government embarked upon to encourage production of quality cotton.

He said the ginners too exploited the growers through bizarre tactics as this year first they announced that they would not procure phutti until disposal of their unsold stock and now they were threatening not to accept phutti in open trolleys, a suitable method to get rid of the phenomenon of mixing-up of jute thread/particles in cotton while being tied up in jute bags to unload at the ginning factories.

He said to minimize the role of middlemen including the ginners a proposal to introduce "customize ginning" was said to be under consideration of the government, under which the growers could get ginned their cotton after paying the ginning cost to the ginneries and then negotiate price with the buyers at their own.

"This practice will help minimizing contamination at the farm level because the grower then will know that he himself can fetch better price on producing quality cotton," he added.

The single-largest buyer of cotton in Pakistan, Sapphire Group's Mian Abdullah said that it was wrong to say that millers paid the same price irrespective of the quality of cotton. "We pay better price for better cotton and vice versa," he commented, adding "we do our procurements with open eyes".

He said a lot was desired to be done both on the government and private sector level to introduce grading system in cotton in the country. He underlined the need of an atmosphere of coordination between millers and ginners in order to know each other's problems.

On "customize ginning", Mian Abdullah said that he did not think that majority of the cotton growers had enough resources to first pay the ginning cost and then stock the produce to negotiate better price with the buyers.

Sheikh Muhammad Saeed, a former PCGA chairman, reiterated that the ginners would not accept phutti brought in open trolleys as this method had increased contamination rather than lessening it. He, however, denied that the ginners had any plan to not cooperate in introducing cotton grading system.