MULTAN, Jan 17: Cotton production will touch new heights this season as by Jan 15 some 13.76 million bales have reached the 1,020 ginneries currently operational across the country.

Last year, only 8.8 million bales had arrived at the 906 ginneries which were working during the corresponding period in the country. The arrival pattern at the ginneries this year so far is 55.15 per cent more than that of the last year.

The cotton production this year has already surpassed the previous all time high cotton production record of 12.8 million bales the country achieved in 1991-92. The Standing Committee on Cotton Crop Assessment in its last meeting held in Lahore on Friday last had put the crop estimate this year as 14.6 million bales on ex-farm basis.

In its first meeting, the SCCCA had estimated the crop at 12.1 million bales. The estimate was revised upward in the second SCCCA meeting at 13.2 million bales. For continuously changing the estimates about the crop size, the SCCCA has come under criticism by various cotton market stakeholders.

The federal agriculture ministry had put the pre-season cotton production target as 10.7 million bales for the year 2004-05. According to a PCGA report released here on Monday, the textile sector has so far bought 10.07 million bales against 6.9 million bales the sector had lifted from the ginneries during the same period last year.

Exporters on the other hand have procured 456,318 bales of cotton by Jan 15 as compared to 162,043 bales they had bought last year up to the same period. The Trading Corporation of Pakistan, which had bought no bales last year by this time, has emerged as the second largest buyer of the domestic cotton by procuring 1.45 million bales.

The unsold stock of the ginned bales lying with the ginneries by Jan 15 this year is 1.1 million bales as against 1.4 million bales of the last year during the same period.

The encouraging aspect of the current cotton arrival is that some 659,369 bales have reached the ginneries during the first fortnight of the current month as against the arrival of 487,763 bales in the same period last year.