The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) will not release October fortnightly reports on seed-cotton arrivals, as most of ginning factories remained closed for Eid holidays.
The consolidated statement of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) will now be released on November 19, exactly after a gap of one month, said an office-bearer of the Association when contacted Business Recorder on Saturday.
All previous statements have shown decrease in seed-cotton arrivals as the crop in both Punjab and Sindh was partly damaged by floods, monsoon rains and virus attack in Punjab.
According to a consolidated statement of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA), from October 1 to 15, 1.36 million bales of cotton (phutti) arrived in the factories, which was 96,601 bales more than the arrivals of the same period of last year.
Ginning factories received about 2.46 million bales in total till mid-October against last year's 2.54 million bales, showing a decrease of 2.9 percent, while about 1.1 million bales of seedcotton arrived in the ginning factories of Punjab and Sindh provinces till October 1, showing a decrease of 170,290 bales, or 13 percent against last year's arrivals.
The Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) in its last meeting estimated production of 12.4 million bales, which would be almost equal to last year's production, but 1.4 million bales less than the fixed target of 13.8 million bales. But cotton growers did not agree either with the estimate of the ministry or the statements of the Association, saying that the arrivals figures were fudged.