Rains damage 1.5m bales of cotton, say loom owners

Govt asked to ban cotton export, review textile policy.

FAISALABAD:

Recent rainstorm has damaged 1.5 million bales of cotton in Punjab and Sindh, causing a great loss to state coffers and prompting the need for the government to review its textile policy and slap a ban on export of cotton to avert a shortage of raw material for the domestic value added textile industry.

Council of Loom Owners Association Chairman Waheed Khaliq Ramay and Patron-in-Chief Mirza Shafiq Ahmad said this while talking to the media here.

They said rains had damaged various crops including cotton to a great extent in southern Punjab and Sindh, adding cotton was cultivated over 1.8 million acres in Sindh, of which 35 per cent of the crop had been affected by the rains.

They said cotton and rice-producing districts of Punjab and Sindh including Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, Rajanpur, Thatta, Badin, Sanghar, Dadu, Nawabshah, Naushero Feroze and Sukkur had been under a spell of rains and thunderstorm for the last few weeks, which washed away 1.5 million bales of cotton worth Rs100 billion.

In the backdrop of this situation, they added, the government should take immediate remedial measures including a ban on export of cotton and review the textile policy to save the industry from collapse because of disruption in raw material supply.

They cautioned that millions of workers were directly associated with the textile industry and they could become jobless if textile units were closed due to the shortage of raw material.



Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2011.