The cotton crop arrivals at the ginneries across the country have been recorded at 11.352 million bales up to May 1, 2008, showing a shortfall of 8.52 percent as compared to last year. Last year, arrivals on May 1 stood at 12.410 million bales.
Initially, the official production target for the current season was fixed at 14.10 million bales. Later, it was revised to 12.5 million bales, and again revised down to 11.6 million bales.
At present, only 11 ginning factories are operating, all of them in Punjab. In Sindh, no ginnery is functioning at present. About 1000 cotton ginning factories operate in the peak season both in Punjab and Sindh. According to the report issued by Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) head office here on Sunday, arrivals of cotton at ginneries in Punjab were recorded at 8.831 million bales, against last year's 10.090 million bales. Thus the shortage has been computed at 12.47 percent.
In Sindh, the arrivals of cotton were recorded at 2.521 million bales, compared to 2.320 million bales of last year--an increase of 8.66 percent. Textile mill owners have so far procured 10.702 million bales, compared to last year's 11.884 million bales both in Punjab and Sindh.
The exporters purchased 1,16,326 bales to date, as compared to 1,17,557 bales of last year. The unsold lint and phutti stocks have been computed at 0.535 million bales, as compared to last year's 0.408 million bales.
The approximate existing rate of good quality lint is Rs 3600 per maund and that of seed-cotton, or phutti, is Rs 1750 per 40 kg. The government's support price for phutti is Rs 1050 per 40 kg. The PCGA report can also be seen on its website "www.pcga.org".
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