Floods destroy cotton crop: Sindh ginning units forced to shut business

The ginning factories in lower Sindh are forced to shut their business because growers may not be able to supply them cotton in the wake of large-scale destruction to the crop by recent floods. Well-placed sources told Business Recorder on Friday that 70 percent textile factories in Sindh are about to close their operations. "An amount of Rs 7 billion was being paid by the ginners to cotton growers in advance for purchase of phutti before the recent floods in Sindh.
The cotton crop has been damaged by 75 percent in 23 districts of lower Sindh which was sown at 1.6 million acres and the area damaged remained 1.2 million. "Obviously, growers are deprived of their crop...so they can not provide phutti to these ginning factories," sources disclosed. According to them, the textile exporters have exported 0.150 million cotton bales so far while the export orders of 50,000 cotton bales have already been booked.
Punjab and Sindh are the major cotton growing provinces. The respective shares of the two provinces in cotton production are estimated at 81 and 19 per cent, respectively Cotton crop was sowed on an area of 2.5 million hectares in Punjab. The cotton sowing in Punjab was 12.25 percent higher than the target.
The total cropped area in Pakistan is about 22.2 million ha. The share of food grain crops is 54 percent, followed by cotton and sugar cane 20 percent; pulses 6 percent; oilseed crops 3 percent; fruit/vegetables 4 percent and other crops about 13 percent. "The country is expected to export 6-7 lac cotton bales this year. By exporting 2 lac cotton bales at the price of 85 cents to 1 dollars per pound in the international market, the country is expected to earn Rs 58 billion," sources disclosed.
Last year, the country exported 6-7 lac cotton bales but the price of cotton in international market at that time was 2.29 cents per pound much higher than that of today. Sources said, "The government is expecting 12.22 million bales cotton production this year but the private sector is expecting 13.5 million bales.