Reacting to the news report in the newspaper captioned "Farmers rally against low price of their produce", M Jawed Bilwani, Central Chairman, Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PHMA) asserted that the value added textile sector had always been saying that a great injustice is meted out to the cotton growers by the ginners and spinners rendering all efforts to grow good quality cotton in vain.
He said that the crop of raw cotton was purchased by the ginner at cheapest prices while the cotton was sold at highest a price which was a travesty of justice. The ginners and spinners are out to make a fast buck, purchase raw cotton from the cotton grower which is hoarded and sold at international prices.
He added that the cotton growers were being exploited while the government did nothing for the betterment of the growers. Jawed Bilwani stated that it is most unfortunate that in utter frustration 1000 farmers on 6th November, 2012 set fire to cotton in protest that they were not supported by the government while the Chinese government offers full support to the cotton growers which is evident from the Chinese press report wherein it has been informed that "this is the second year the government has implemented the policy to guarantee the livelihoods of cotton growers and to stabilise prices for the commodity with the purchase 1 million tons as of October 24, 2012 - 150 times the amount bought up last year".
On the one hand, cotton growers are not facilitated at all to grow quality cotton and on the other hand, spinners are sucking their blood. It is indeed an irony that with the export of yarn the spinners also export our scarcely available energy resources as well as cotton - raw materials for manufacturing for coarse cotton yarn which is badly needed by the domestic export oriented valued added textile sector. It is pertinent to mention here the majority of spinning units have captive power plant running on single cycle. China imports huge quantities of cotton yarn from Pakistan which is cheaper for them than manufacturing yarn from their own cotton crop.
We have been regularly appealing to the government to set up a mechanism whereby the government buys all raw cotton from the grower at reasonable price set by the government with the growers in case the market price is lower, guaranteeing them a comfortable margin of profit and government sell to the ginners. This will also facilitate the ginner and really relieve the growers and help them in greatly improving the quality and quantity, he said.-PR