ISLAMABAD, Oct 8: The government has directed the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to intervene in the market and procure huge quantity of cotton from open market to encourage the cotton growers and stabilize the prices.

This was decided at a meeting held here on Friday, with Jahangir Tareen, Federal Minister for Industries and Production, in the chair.

The meeting, also attended by All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) and Pakistan Cotton Grower Association (PCGA), was convened to discuss the cotton marketing and stability of support price, an official statement said.

The government has fixed support price for Phutti at Rs925 per 40 kg and Rs2159 per 40 kg for grade-III cotton lint. The TCP has procured 123,700 bales up to October 7, 2004 and is continuing purchasing cotton to help the farmers.

The Minister asked the Aptma and PCGA to come forward and jointly support the government to change the market sentiments to stabilize the prices of cotton in the country so that the farmers of cotton could be encouraged through paying fair and supportive price to them.

The Minister informed the meeting that the Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was keen to solve the problems of cotton growers and instructed the TCP to procure cotton from market to support the farmers.

He said that the prices in local market were lower than support price but the farmers, due to higher yield per acre, were partially compensated. They were selling cotton to textile mills at current market rates rather than selling it to TCP at support price, he added.

He said the government would play its role to create an environment to check un-healthy competition by imports on one hand and facilitate cash flow on the other hand so that the farmers did not face problems.

He said the Export Promotion Bureau has also been directed by the prime minister to discover export market to export the surplus cotton. The chairman Aptma Asif Saeed and Chairman PCGA, Haji Muhammad Ibrahim welcomed the decision of the government and ensured their full support in stabilizing the prices.