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Cotton crop size likely to be below target
KARACHI, April 20:
Dwindling arrival of phutti (seed cotton) from
fields into ginneries reflects the size of crop
below the government's revised estimate of 10
million bales. The latest phutti arrival figures
released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners'
Association (PCGA) show that the country has
produced 9.770 million bales up to April 15, 2004.
As the current crop season (2003-04) is at the fag
end and there was little hope of any improvement
in phutti arrival, therefore, this may be taken as
total and final output of cotton. Since the PCGA
did not give last year's comparative data it was
not possible to draw exact picture of the arrival
over the corresponding period of last year.
The cotton production in Punjab up to April 15,
2004, stood at 7.641 million bales and in Sindh at
2.129 million bales. The textile mills purchased
8.512 million bales and private sector exporters
179,037 bales. With the expanded capacity and
Balancing, Mordernization and Replacement (BMR)
the industry estimated a total consumption of raw
cotton to exceed 12 million bales.
"There may be a crisis like situation towards the
end of the season that is July and August period
and many small mills may have to close down till
the arrival of new crop from September," a leading
spinner said. The industrial groups are importing
raw cotton to meet the shortfall but 80 per cent
of Small and Medium sized units who are not in a
position to get huge bank finances for import of
cotton may have to pull down shutters, he added.
The DAWN
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Pakissan.com; Advisory Point
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