Strategy to be designed to stabilise cotton market, body meets today

The committee on cotton is meeting here on Tuesday for working out strategy to stabilise cotton market for good return to the growers, who despite Trading Corporation of Pakistan 's (TCP) intervention for lint buying are uncertain about the market trend in the coming days.
The Committee members; the Ministers for Industries and Production, Commerce, Food and Agriculture, Textile Industry, Chairman TCP, Chairman All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), Chairman All Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association, growers representatives and senior federal and provincial officials would attend the meeting.
The ginners' delegation, led by PCGA Chairman Haji Ibrahim, would demand of the government that it should ensure staying of the TCP in the cotton procurement operation till the end of the season so that the millers could not exploit the situation for pulling down lint rates.
Talking to Business Recorder on Monday, Ibrahim said the PCGA would demand guarantee from the government side that the TCP will stay in the buying process till the last bale is counted for.
The PCGA chief said that the TCP presence has shown positive impact on the phutti prices and now growers were getting comparatively good return, but still its long way to be sure that growers and ginners do not suffer any setback due to sudden downfall in lint rates.
He said we would demand ginners' protection, so that they could continue buying without any fear of crash in the market.
On the direction of the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) the TCP is actively engaged in the cotton procurement which has pushed up phutti rates in the open market to Rs 900 per maund.
It may be noted that phutti rates had gone down to Rs 850 and in some areas Rs 840 per maund against the governments support price of Rs 925. The quick slide in phutti and the lint rates as well was a cause of concern to the government, which used the option of bringing in the TCP into procurement as its last resort to protect the growers and ginners from any adverse situation.