LAHORE: The nation’s new cotton ginning season has begun, albeit only partially, as one ginning facility each in Sindh and Punjab has begun operations, with more to follow in the coming days.
According to reports, several coastal regions of Sindh and southern Punjab have begun to partially harvest cotton, and the amount of raw cotton that is entering the market is increasing daily. Compared to the same days last year, the volume is far smaller.
Since the government is delaying the announcement of the cotton intervention price, farmers are more concerned and preoccupied with their recently produced wheat crop than with cotton. As a result, one ginning unit has opened in Hyderabad and another in Burewala, Punjab.
Lower Sindh areas are starting to see an increase in the picking of cotton, with rates per 40kg ranging from Rs9,500 to Rs10,700.
Higher temperatures are reportedly hindering efforts to plant cotton, and textile factories have reportedly withheld payments totaling billions of rupees due to the industry’s purported financial difficulties.
A meeting a few days ago between the representatives of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) and the All-Pakistan Textile Mills Association was limited to exchanging ideas about how to make the current state of affairs better.
Expert on cotton Abid Zaidi laments the lack of seriousness displayed by APTMA leadership during the meeting. He added in a statement that the textile mills were paying local premium quality lint less than they should have been for cotton, despite the ginners’ legitimate complaints that the mills were importing cotton at higher prices.
He expressed sadness that, in contrast to any other nation, up to 8% of the non-lint content in local cotton is tolerated with the implicit consent of APTMA, and he asked textile mills to actively participate in the creation of high-quality lint.
The spot rate committee of the Karachi Cotton Association kept it at Rs19,700 per bale in the interim.
According to Naseem Usman, chairman of the Karachi Cotton Brokers Forum, cotton rates are trending upward in global markets. He said that the price per pound for cotton futures on the New York market was 80.52 cents.
Ihsanul Haq, chairman of the Cotton Ginners Forum, stated that this season’s unfavorable weather had affected cotton growing.
He continued by saying that prior attempts at seeding cotton in Sindh’s coastal towns were hampered by extreme cold in the months of February and March. Currently, increasing temperatures are having an impact on crop sowing and growth in Sindh’s and Punjab’s main cotton zones. Districts like Sahiwal, Ghotki, Sukkur, Khairpur Meris, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, and Nawabshah were among them.
He stated that the Punjab government recently announced plans to develop a 1,000-acre garment city close to Lahore, where facilities for the establishment of new textile factories will be made available to both global and local companies. Instead, he recommended that the government use these monies to reactivate the 50–60% of textile mills in the province that are dormant for a variety of reasons.
