Dependency on imported cotton increases

Pakistan's dependency on imported cotton has increased from 1.5 million bales to 2 million bales, due to sharp decline in domestic production for 2003-04.
Pakistan needs 11.5 million bales to meet its textile sectors next year's consumption, where the local crop arrival of 9.4 million bales recorded at the ginneries as on February 29 is indicative of shortfall of 0.5 million.
The ginners are expecting around 0.1 million bales in March, the last month of the season, which would take the total to around 9.5 million bales.
The shortfall is imminent now when the last month of arrival is in progress and owing to substantial reduction in arrival during the last few weeks the remaining days of the current month can only add 0.1 million bales in net total for 2003-04.
Despite a clear indication of shortage in crop, the officials are still living on hopes that there would be no shortage in crop. Minister for State for Food and Agriculture Sikander Bosan at a recently concluded meeting in Multan had also endorsed the notion.
During the meeting, the minister for state kept on claiming that cotton volume for the current fiscal was 10 million bales. He turned deaf ear to the ginners and growers who contested the state minister's claims of 10 million bales.
The ginners and growers remain pegged to their positions that cotton crop volume for the current year was much below the estimates of officials.
Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) Senior Vice Chairman Haji Ibrahim, who attended the meeting, told Business Recorder that the ginners were convinced that the country's dependency on imported cotton would increase next year due to less production.
He said the PCGA was closely watching the ground position and its production figures were more realistic than any other stakeholder of the cotton sector.
The ginners and growers have been contesting the cotton production estimates of the officials from the very beginning of the season.
Though the Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) had scaled down the target from 10.5 million bales after strong opposition from other stakeholders, it could not satisfy any of the parties.
Ibrahim claimed that the estimates of the officials being paperwork have nothing to do with the facts on ground.
He wanted that a committee of all the stakeholders should be formed to take the job of fixing what he called realistic crop target to avoid misunderstanding among them.