KARACHI (January 21 2004): Surprise arrival of cotton from some parts of Punjab and Sindh has improved the overall production figure, creating hope for a better crop than the expectation of the growers.

Ginners and cotton brokers said that the speedy arrival of cotton has bridged the widening gap between the production of current and previous year and the shortfall squeezed to only 3.6 percent.

The latest report of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) has shown a production of 8.889 million bales as compared with 9.191 million bales last year.

"Some parts of Punjab and Sindh where the cotton stocks were supposed to be exhausted, again provided good number of bales which would contribute towards the total production," said a well connected cotton broker in Karachi.

Ginners said that upper Sindh and Bahawalpur are the areas from where unexpected rises in production were noted. The ginners were of the view that fresh arrivals have minimised the gap between the two years' production.

However, the expectation of 10 million bales production would not come true, they said.

This year the production figure of cotton has witnessed many ups and downs. Earlier, it was believed that the production could hardly touch 9 million bales, which resulted in the record price hike.

But latter the speedy arrival of cotton changed the scenario to increase the estimate up to 9.3 to 9.5 million bales.

"Now we believe that the production could touch 9.6 million bales," said Nasim Usman, a cotton broker.

Courtesy Business Recorder