KARACHI, Aug 5: A special session of the Federal Textile Board is being held on Wednesday (August 7) at Lahore with the participation of over 65 representatives drawn from all segments of the cotton economy to focus on the “Cotton Policy issues and cotton contamination”.
The meeting is being held at a time when cotton season has just set in. The government is embarking upon an ambitious textile export target of 6 billion dollars plus for the current fiscal year amidst all uncertainties that grip the international market. Participants of the meeting are the federal and provincial ministers of agriculture, senior bureaucrats of the federal and provincial governments, cotton researchers, representatives of growers, ginners, spinners, value-added textile sectors and cotton traders.
A seven-point agenda for the Wednesday meeting focuses on the contamination-free cotton production programme, the premia being offered for clean cotton and enactment of a uniform Cotton Control Act in all the four provinces. Improvement in ginning is also on the agenda and a Pakistan Cotton Standardization Ordinance is being promulgated very soon. Research and development of new cotton varieties and improvement in cotton yield per acre will also be discussed in the meeting. The participants will also review the progress being made towards achieving targets set in Textile Vision 2005.
Officials say that launching of contamination-free cotton production programme with provision of duty-free import of clean cotton has started paying dividends. “There is a visible shift in spinning sector from production of coarse quality yarn to finer counts yarn and better quality textile products are getting good response in the international market,” Mohammad Idress, Textile Commissioner informed Dawn.
The contamination-free cotton production programme was launched two years ago. Contamination in cotton has been brought down substantially and officials expect a better result this year and in coming seasons when all the four provincial governments would be well equipped to advise their respective growers.
Since its formation, the Federal Textile Board is reported to have held four meetings were devoted to the issue of contamination-free cotton production programme and in one of the meetings sectoral committees have been formed.
Bad picking, packing and sub-standard ginning have been blamed for cotton contaminations. Officials say that there are at present 1,221 ginneries in Pakistan with a total ginning capacity of 20 million bales.
The government wants to cut down this capacity to 10 million bales but ensuring the best quality.
SMEDA has been given the task to draw up an investment and restructuring programme for the ginneries. A French consultant is helping in improving the ginning quality.
Also to come under discussion is the current on-going cotton policy that allows duty-free export and import of cotton. Spinners say that they had to import 1.3 million bales of quality cotton last season to meet the deficit as well as improving the quality of yarn.
Cotton consumption in mills remain a big issue because out of 445 textile mills only 200 are reported to be responding to the queries on cotton consumption and yarn production from the Textile Commissioner’s office. Out of 245 non-responding mills 91 are said to be closed and 154 are defaulting.
The cotton consumption and yarn production of defaulting 154 mills are being estimated on their past pattern. Officials have serious doubt on the credibility of 50 per cent of these textile mills.
There is a possibility of some fireworks in the Wednesday meeting as spinners are bound to come under fire from the representatives of growers, ginners and value added textile sector for misreporting their consumption and yarn production figures.