Raw cotton's import has been up 57 percent to $503.743 million (Rs 30.57 billion) during the first ten months of the current fiscal year against same period of last fiscal. Importers said that this was due to because the country has missed its cotton production target.
"Monsoon rains in last August severely hit the country's cotton crop of Sanghar, Dhedadpur in the interior Sindh prevented country from achieving raw cotton production by around one million bales against the target of 14 million bales during the current fiscal," importers said.
They said that Pakistan is the fourth largest producer of cotton in the world but its textile industry's requirement could not be met that necessitated raw cotton import raising imports by 57 percent during July-April. The country 's raw cotton import is up $188.771 million during the first ten months of the current fiscal.
"We have imported around 1.832 million raw cotton bales worth $503.743 million (Rs 30.57 billion) during July-April of the current fiscal as compared to 1.527 million bales worth $314.972 million (Rs 18.84 billion) during the same period last fiscal,'' they informed.
The government has planned schemes to help raise the output of raw cotton for the next season but currently the country is facing around 2.5-3 million bales shortfall, they added. They said that cotton production growth for the last few years has been of high concern and this year despite all claims the country's production did not show any improvement.
Our local production stood at around 12.4 million bales against the consumption of 15-16 million bales, therefore, textile millers are placing huge orders of raw cotton import to fulfil their export orders, said a leading textile miller.
"We need better quality cotton, which has limited production in the country therefore quality issue also has brought cotton import to 1.8 million bales," he added. He said although imported cotton is costlier than the domestic cotton but due to better quality, millers prefer the imported cotton.