KARACHI: The cotton production dropped to 12.845 million bales up to March 15, 2013 as against 14.548 million bales produced in the corresponding period last year.

A shortfall of some 2.434 million bales (20.50 per cent) in cotton production in Punjab pulled down overall cotton production by 11.71 per cent or 1.703 million bales over the last year’s total.

The phutti arrival data was jointly compiled by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association and Karachi Cotton Association.

Last year’s heavy rains and flood damaged standing cotton crop in Punjab resultantly the province harvested only 9.445 million bales so far compared to 11.979 million bales produced in the same period last season.

It was encouraging that cotton production in Sindh managed to recoup after witnessing two successive bad years when the crop suffered heavily due to rains and flood.

The cotton production increased by 29.59 per cent at 3.399 million bales in Sindh as against 2.668 million bales the same period last year.

There is a sudden dip in phutti arrivals during the last fortnight (March 1 to 15) because only 84,414 bales reported to have reached into the ginneries compared to 189,993 bales, a shortfall of 88,470 bales.

A short crop has left spinners and mills in a quandary for procuring the commodity as they have to explore international markets for bridging supply gap to meet their consumption needs.

In total 11.618m bales had been lifted by spinners and mills compared to 12.778 million bales purchased by them in the corresponding period last year. Exporters picked up 328,901 bales as against 999,809 bales in the corresponding period last season.

Nevertheless, slightly higher unsold stocks were being held by ginners at 898,106 bales as against 770,547 bales in the same period last year.