Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) has reported a notable rise in the overall cotton production.
According to data released by the organisation, a total of 2.115 million bales of cotton reached ginning factories across the country by August 15, 2023. It constituted about 43% of the total production of cotton in the previous 2022-23 season.
This remarkable growth is expected to take the total production of cotton during the 2023-24 season up to 12 million bales, according to a statement issued on Friday.
In Punjab, the ginning factories received 637,000 bales of cotton while in Sindh 1.479 million bales reached factories. So far, textile mills have purchased 1.86 million bales and 189,000 bales are still available for sale at the ginning units.
Cotton Ginners Forum Chairman Ihsanul Haq said that the highlight of the latest report was the abundant production of cotton in Sindh in the current season, which was about 79% of the total harvest in the previous year.
“This surge is expected to propel total production of cotton in the province to around 3.5 million bales this year,” he said.
Haq pointed out that in the PCGA’s report, 66,000 bales had been categorised as exports but in reality that quantity had been sold by cotton ginners to a foreign trading firm in Pakistan with the intention of later selling them to local textile mills.
He contended that owing to an extraordinary increase in taxes, the undocumented purchase and sale of cotton was being increasingly observed in the country.
This signals that the purchase and sale of around 500,000 bales has not been mentioned in the report. “It can be said that total domestic production of cotton till August 15 was approximately 2.6 million bales.”
Published in The Express Tribune, August 19th, 2023.
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