LAHORE: Expectations for harvesting more than six million bales this season were bolstered by Phutti arrivals to ginning plants, which maintained a positive trend for the third consecutive fortnight.
Over the past three weeks, cotton production has stayed 22% greater than it was the previous season. But according to data issued by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association on Monday, the total number of arrivals reached 4.894 million bales until November 15, which is 34 percent lower than the previous year.
2.245 million bales in Punjab and 2.649 million bales in Sindh made it to the ginning plants, representing a 35 percent and 33 percent decrease, respectively, from the data from the previous season in both provinces.
According to the PCGA report, the ginners supplied 4.14m bales to the textile industry.
The likelihood of reaching the 6 m bales target is improved by bullish fortnightly arrivals.
The ginning plants in the Sanghar district of Sindh produced the most cotton, with 1.299 million bales, followed by the Bahawalnagar district of Punjab with 0.547 million bales.
Currently, 515 ginning facilities are in operation nationwide. According to Ihsanul Haque, head of the Cotton Ginners Forum, 2.854 million bales were delivered to ginning plants nationwide over the three consecutive fortnights, from October 1 to November 15, which is a surprising amount when compared to the same time last year.
This represents a record 22% increase in cotton arrivals, which might result in the domestic production reaching six million bales and, most likely, a decrease in the local textile industry’s reliance on imports. An estimated 5.5 million bales were produced overall.
