LAHORE: Dullness prevails in the local cotton market on Tuesday while the trading volume low.

Cotton Analyst Naseem Usman told Business Recorder that Spot Rate remained unchanged.

He also said that it was in the first time of Pakistani history that advance trading of cotton started three months before the arrival of the season.

He further told that farmers are happy that they are getting good price adding that cultivation area of cotton will also be increased.

Punjab Agriculture Department has decided to ensure traceability of available seed in order to facilitate farmers in sowing of silver fiber.

“Cotton is the most important crop of our country. The present government is taking all possible steps to increase yield of cotton crop and reduce the chances of pest infestation on the next crop,” this was said by Minister for Agriculture, Punjab Syed Hussain Jahania Gardezi while presiding over the first meeting of the Cotton Planning Committee held at Civil Secretariat on Monday.

DG Agriculture (Extension) Dr Anjum Ali briefed the committee about the situation of cotton. On the occasion, the minister directed the department to ensure the supply of approved varieties of cotton seeds to the farmers for the next cotton crop and take legal action against the fake seed mafia.

The provincial minister said that breeders are working for the promotion of new varieties of cotton. SOPs should be set up for them so that technically sound person could develop varieties in future.

In addition, no NGO should provide any kind of technical guidance to cotton growers without the approval of the Agriculture Department. In the meeting, the provincial agriculture minister paid tribute to the officials of the Agriculture Department for better production of cotton crop in 2020-21.

‘Rs300bn used on UPLIFT schemes’: Under Planning and Development Board (P&D) Chairman Abdullah Sumbal, executing agencies in Punjab have achieved historic implementation pace of development projects. According to P&D’s press release, departments have utilised Rs300billion against the release amount of Rs458billion during the CFY 21-22. This reflects 66pc utilisation of the funds so far. Besides the efficiency of the executing agency, this also contributes to the robust monitoring system and close coordination by the board chairman. Evolved by the chairman, almost weekly and biweekly meetings were conducted with all relevant stakeholders and the impeding bottlenecks were immediately removed. The efficient and speedy approval of development schemes have also contributed towards this historic achievement. Over 66 Provincial Development Working Party meetings were conducted during the past eight months. Of around Rs90bn released for roads’ projects, Rs57billionn were utilised, 68pc of the release funds. An amount of Rs11.1billion of the total Rs19.5billion released for public buildings was utilised.

The other departments/sectors included Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department that utilised 68pc of the released funds of Rs89.3billion. Urban Development (49pc of the total Rs26.416billion), Water Supply and Sanitation (63pc of the total Rs34.6billiomn), School Education (79pc of the total Rs31.7billion), Local Government & Community Development Department (65pc of total Rs30.7 billion), Agriculture (58pc of the total Rs29.9 billion) and Planning and Development (84pc of the total Rs26.1 billion).

Moreover, ICE cotton futures fell more than 2% on Monday, tracking a pullback in broader commodity markets, while renewed COVID-19 lockdowns in top consumer China also weighed on sentiment.

In Feb 2022, Vietnamese cotton imports reduced by 7.1% month-on-month and 19.3% year-on-year, and Vietnamese yarn imports dropped by 13.6% month-on-month and 20.9% year-on-year. Vietnamese textiles and apparel exports moved up by 13% year-on-year but down 42.4% month-on-month.

RMG shipments from Bangladesh to Russia and the payments from the buyers are declining every day as the country continues its war against Ukraine. As per a Daily Star report, garment suppliers in Bangladesh are not receiving payments as Russian Banks have been banned from using SWIFT, the global payments messaging network. The US recently also announced sanctions on four large Russian

The Spot Rate remained unchanged at Rs 20,000 per maund. Polyester Fiber was available at Rs 285 per kg.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022