Prices crisis is ending rapidly in cotton market and prices are escalating day by day and now growers as well as ginners are getting fair return of their produce, claimed by Amanullah Qureshi, Chairman of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) while addressing a press conference on Tuesday.
He said that Pakistan has set a new record of cotton production this year and it would touch the figures of 14.8 million. He said that there was an upsurge trend in world cotton market because of 11 per cent decrease in world cotton production as forecast by the agricultural experts. However Pakistan, with the blessings of Almighty, will produce 17 million bales. He suggested that government should do planning for the forthcoming cotton season to protect the interest of growers.
He said that a National Cotton Policy be framed with the consultation of all stakeholders including growers and ginners to safeguard their interests because Pakistan may produce more than 17 million bales of cotton in next season, said Amanullah Qureshi. He said that farmers have set a record of cotton production this year as 14,670,338 bales have so far been reached at ginneries till April 1st.
Total production would not be less than 14.8 million bales. He said that government would have to introduce a mechanism to stabilise the cotton prices and it should not leave the growers as well as ginners at the mercy of textile millers who had fleeced them in the guise of free trade and WTO norms.
Qureshi said that time had proved that all assessments given by the official agencies & departments proved wrong and production figures given by PCGA proved correct. He has demanded of the government to grant a bailout package for the cotton growers who had incurred a loss of more than Rs.225 billion due to the cartel of textile millers and said that government should issue order to Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to procure at least 0.7 million bales from the unsold stock of ginners.
Chairman of PCGA said that some elements were exploiting the farmers taking advantage of free trade mechanism. In fact they were fleecing the farmers in the guise of international norms of trades. Bureaucracy as well as textile ministry was responsible for the losses of growers who were playing the game for the APTMA.