Cotton prices in Pakistan have mostly remained in a steady mode with price variations generally reflecting premia or discounts for quality. Therefore, the Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) has kept the ex-gin price of Grade 3 cotton at Rs 3300 per maund over the past several sessions.
We may thus presume that ready cotton prices in Pakistan have mostly remained rangebound over the past two or three weeks. Most seedcotton (kapas/phutti) from the current crop (2007-08) has been disposed by the growers but whatever little is left is being sold between Rs 1200 to Rs 1600 per 40 kgs in both Sindh and Punjab. Lint prices in the ready market in Sindh reportedly ranged from Rs 3250 to Rs 3410 per maund (37.32 kgs) while in the Punjab they were said to have been selling on Thursday between Rs 3200 per maund to Rs 3500 per maund according to the quality.
Good grade cottons are scarce these days and thus attract handsome prices. Besides the domestic mills, exporters are also active and may have lifted between 150,000 to 175,000 domestic size bales during the season. It is generally felt that good class of cottons will continue to attract premium prices.
By the 1st of April 2008, it is expected that seedcotton (kapas/putti) equivalent to 11.5 million to 11.6 million domestic size bales will have arrived into the ginneries both in Sindh and Punjab. These arrivals may constitute the final ex-gin output Pakistan will achieve during the current season. Ginners are thus likely to hold unsold stocks of about one million bales while the domestic mills are expected to have lifted between 10.4 million to 10.5 million bales by the first of next month.
With both the growers and ginners having earned good money during the outgoing season (2007-08) in most cases, they are likely to plant more cotton during the forthcoming season (2008-09). However, apprehended shortage of irrigation water and fear of adulterated supply inputs like fertiliser, seeds and pesticides keep haunting the growers. Furthermore, the fear of recurrent attack of mealy bug on the cotton crop remains a threatening menace.
Reports reaching from Nagpur in India indicate that competent authorities there held a National Consultation on Mealy Bug Management (NCMBM) on the 28th and 29th of January 2008. India fears that its phenomenal success of growing Bt cotton is not immune to the threat of the mealy bug which was first spotted there in the year 2005. The director of the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) in India B.M. Khadi told an initial gathering of 52 scientists from all over India that the mealy bug was found to have effected vast patches of cotton in northern states like Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan and its spread is alarming.
Up to now all efforts to control the mealy bug have been unsuccessful. The Indian authorities fear that though the spread of mealy bug in central and southern India has been sporadic but it could become a big headache later on and could wipe out the gains made by introducing Bt cotton in India. even the Bt cotton is not spared by the mealy bug. under the circumstances, it appears prudent that both India and Pakistan should join forces immediately to devise ways and means to control the growing menace of the mealy bug.
We are on the eve of the new cotton planting season (2008-09) season in Pakistan but reports of scarcity of irrigation water are appearing in the media. Particularly, reported water scarcity in lower Sindh could bring hardship to the growers. May be the newly elected speaker of the National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza from Badin should energise the irrigation authorities to look after the tail-enders in Sindh where the cotton season starts soon.
Pakistan is going through a phase of great optimism with the formation of the national assembly which took oath this week and the induction of the new Prime Minister Makhdum Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani. Yousuf Raza Gilani is a very respected and resourceful person from Multan which is the heart and of the cotton growing area of Punjab, Pakistan's premier province. Public are pinning high hopes on the new civilian set-up in the government which has instilled big enthusiasm in the business and industrial community.
In the evening, 2000 bales of cotton from upper Sindh (K-68) were reportedly sold at Rs 3300/Rs 3410 per maund (37.32 kgs); 1000 bales from Shujabad in Punjab sold at Rs 3300 per maund; 2000 bales from Lodhran/Shujabad sold at Rs 3300 per maund; 1000 bales from Khanpur and 2000 bales from Rahimyar Khan sold at Rs 3400 per maund each, while 800 bales from Jehania sold at Rs 3515 per maund. These sales depict respectable turnover in the market at steady prices.
Two leading textile industrialists Mian Maqbul Ahmed Shaikh and Mian Farooq A. Shaikh passed away recently. Mian Maqbul Shaikh was the chairman of Messrs Allahwasaya Textile Mills and was a highly regarded and respectable figure of Multan. Mian Farooq A. Shaikh who expired in Rawalpindi was member of the leading Colony Group of Industries who was managing the (Sarhad) Colony Textile Mills. Both the above industrialists were elder figures in the Pakistan textile industry with diverse other interests.