Fortnightly report: Cotton supply increases 7.7% by mid-March

Textile mills consume 10.74m bales, exporters buy 216,615 bales

MULTAN: Over 11.525 million bales of cotton were supplied by farmers to ginning factories by March 15, 2018 in the current season, up 7.74% compared with 10.72 million bales in the corresponding period of previous season, according to the latest fortnightly report released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners’ Association (PCGA) on Monday.

In Punjab - the major cotton-producing province, total cotton arrivals increased 5.24% year-on-year to 7.3 million bales whereas in Sindh, supplies rose 12.31% to 4.25 million bales by mid-March, showed the report prepared in cooperation with the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) and the Karachi Cotton Association.



Of the total, 10.95 million bales were sold, leaving a stock of 597,847 bales with the ginners.



Domestic textile mills consumed 10.74 million bales whereas 216,615 bales were sold to exporters. PCGA Chairman Haji Muhammad Akram told media that seed cotton (phutti) equivalent to about 11.6 million bales had reached ginning factories across Pakistan, showing an increase of 7.74%.

About 598,000 bales were staying unsold because some ginners were waiting for higher cotton prices in the market.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2018.

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