Pakistan may absorb Indian cotton, sugar surplus
India is set to produce bumper crop of sugar and cotton in 2010-11 part of which is likely to be absorbed be Pakistan.
MUMBAI:
India is set to produce a bumper crop of sugar and cotton in 2010-11 and part of the surplus is likely to be absorbed by Pakistan, where floods have ravaged both crops in the main growing areas, industry officials said.
Pakistan’s Punjab and Sindh provinces, the leading producers of both commodities, have been hit by the worst floods in decades, which may force it to increase imports, especially from neighbouring India due to freight cost advantages.
“There will be a spurt in exports from India in the short term to Pakistan,” said the director of a leading Indian cotton export firm, which has been in the business for over eight decades. “After proper assessment of the damage we can put a figure on an additional requirement,” he added.
The flood has affected every province of Pakistan, with 1.4 million acres of crops being hit in Punjab alone.
Record prices and a good monsoon prompted Indian farmers to expand acreage under both crops and supplies from the new plantation will begin from October.
Cotton output in India, the world’s second biggest producer, will be more than last year’s 29.5 million bales, Textile Commissioner A B Joshi said last month.
“India is likely to gain in a shortage scenario. Geographical proximity is another advantage. Pakistan will seek most of cotton imports from us,” said a senior official with Sekhsaria & Co, a Mumbai-based exporter.
Indian exporters said New Delhi may even give preferential treatment to Pakistan, where the economy is heavily dependent on the textile industry, if flood damage raises the country’s cotton requirement.
Sweet move
India may supply 320,000 tons of white sugar to trading firms, which are selling the sweetener to Pakistan, two sources familiar with the deal told Reuters on Monday. India, which was a net importer of sugar in 2009-10, will have supplies of 31.4 million tons in the next sugar year beginning October, compared to domestic demand of 23 million tons, leaving the country with enough stocks to ship.
“Pakistan is most likely to buy from us. We have surplus. For Indian millers it is an opportunity to reduce inventory,” Ashok Jain, President Bombay Sugar Merchants Association (BSMA), said.
Pakistan has made a series of purchases in the international market this year following estimates its 2009-10 crop would produce a little more than three million tons of white sugar against annual demand of 4.2 million tons.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 10th, 2010.
India is set to produce a bumper crop of sugar and cotton in 2010-11 and part of the surplus is likely to be absorbed by Pakistan, where floods have ravaged both crops in the main growing areas, industry officials said.
Pakistan’s Punjab and Sindh provinces, the leading producers of both commodities, have been hit by the worst floods in decades, which may force it to increase imports, especially from neighbouring India due to freight cost advantages.
“There will be a spurt in exports from India in the short term to Pakistan,” said the director of a leading Indian cotton export firm, which has been in the business for over eight decades. “After proper assessment of the damage we can put a figure on an additional requirement,” he added.
The flood has affected every province of Pakistan, with 1.4 million acres of crops being hit in Punjab alone.
Record prices and a good monsoon prompted Indian farmers to expand acreage under both crops and supplies from the new plantation will begin from October.
Cotton output in India, the world’s second biggest producer, will be more than last year’s 29.5 million bales, Textile Commissioner A B Joshi said last month.
“India is likely to gain in a shortage scenario. Geographical proximity is another advantage. Pakistan will seek most of cotton imports from us,” said a senior official with Sekhsaria & Co, a Mumbai-based exporter.
Indian exporters said New Delhi may even give preferential treatment to Pakistan, where the economy is heavily dependent on the textile industry, if flood damage raises the country’s cotton requirement.
Sweet move
India may supply 320,000 tons of white sugar to trading firms, which are selling the sweetener to Pakistan, two sources familiar with the deal told Reuters on Monday. India, which was a net importer of sugar in 2009-10, will have supplies of 31.4 million tons in the next sugar year beginning October, compared to domestic demand of 23 million tons, leaving the country with enough stocks to ship.
“Pakistan is most likely to buy from us. We have surplus. For Indian millers it is an opportunity to reduce inventory,” Ashok Jain, President Bombay Sugar Merchants Association (BSMA), said.
Pakistan has made a series of purchases in the international market this year following estimates its 2009-10 crop would produce a little more than three million tons of white sugar against annual demand of 4.2 million tons.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 10th, 2010.