Pakistan's Ministry of Textile Industry will soon be submitting a summary to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Federal Cabinet demanding allocation of funds for timely intervention in the cotton market, in order to bring stabilization in the domestic cotton market.
In this regard, the Ministry has also directed the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to purchase seed cotton instead of cotton lint during the coming season, so that farmers in the country get the maximum benefit and prices of cotton remain stable, said Minister of Textile Industry Abbas Khan Afridi, reports Business Recorder quoting APP.
According to Mr. Afridi, cotton is the corner stone of the Pakistani textile industry which accounts for around 55 percent of the overall exports from the country, however, cotton production has remained stagnant in Pakistan at around 12 to 13 million bales per annum during the last ten years.
Last month, during the third meeting of Pakistan’s Federal Committee on Cotton, the production target for the 2014-15 season was fixed at 15.1 million bales of 170 kg each. At the meeting, it was informed that despite several challenges faced by the cotton sector of country, the target of 15.1 million bales was set to push all concerned departments to work towards achieving the goal and overcome the issues.
As per the Pakistan Cotton Ginneries’ Association (PCGA) fortnightly report on cotton arrivals, ginneries in Pakistan received 13.385 million bales of cotton as on April 1, 2014, which is a slight increase of 3.86 percent compared to the arrival of 12.888 million bales during the same period in the previous season 2012-13.
