The chairman of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA), Muhammad Akram Jatt, on Tuesday, hailed government efforts to take the ginners out of the crisis by clearing their dues and lifting 1,00,000 bales cotton. He told Business Recorder that Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) had extended the date of tender for lifting 100,000 cotton bales.
It was decided at a meeting of PCGA and other stakeholders with the Minister for Textile, Farooq Saeed Khan, on Monday. "The minister issued orders to TCP in this regard along with instructions that only registered ginners will participate in the tender bid," Akram said. The new date for bidding has been extended to February 2, 2009 from January 27, 2009.
He said that the minister also assured the PCGA that every ginning unit in the country would not bid for more than 1000 bales to entertain participating ginners to get benefit. He said the TCP would also uphold the regular procedure for the procurement and hopefully would not entertain individuals, middlemen or accept bid for more than 1000 bales.
He said that TCP had agreed to lift cotton at around Rs 3202 per maund. He said to-date the ginning sector has around 1.7 million bales to offer, while this sector has more than 3 million cotton bales in the backlog. A director on the Board of Karachi Cotton Association (KCA), Ghulam Rabbani, said that around Rs 5 billion has been allocated to TCP for procurement of lint from the ginning sector and the growers for support of cotton market.
He said that TCP's intervention would greatly help the ginners to clear payment to farmers and growers to the tune of millions of rupees stuck up with the ginning sector. He said that due to such measures, middlemen would not be able to exploit or hurt the cotton market and the condition of registered ginners and limiting of bales is appropriate.
The cotton price witnessed an increase of around Rs 400 per maund during one month while the growerrs and ginners have gained confidence following TCP's active role in the market. He said if the current level of Rs 3,300 and around per maund sustains at the end of fiscal year 2008-09, the average for full year would still be 3 percent higher than the average of 2008. He said TCP would store lint at its Pipri, Landhi and Korangi warehouses with overall capacity of storing around 1.3 million bales. General Manager (Cotton) TCP, Imtiaz Sheikh, said that delay in the tender would definitely benefit the ginning sector.