Informed sources told Business Recorder that in the absence of a Cotton Policy in Pakistan, not only the growers but also the textile mill owners were finding it difficult to cope with the issues related to high cost of crop production, the prices of commodity at domestic as well as international level, and the import and export of the commodity.
"A solid cotton policy can not only provide a solution to these issues but can also give an answer to the long-standing issues of the cotton growers and textile mill owners", sources added. Sources said that the government had increased the price of wheat from Rs 1050/maund to Rs 1200/maund but nothing has been done regarding the price of cotton that is a source of earning of more than 50 percent foreign exchange for the country per annum.
It is totally unjustified that the textile mill owners are purchasing cotton at Rs 6000/ maund from the ginning factories while phutti is being sold at Rs 2900 per maund. It is a fact that due to the high prices of inputs like fertilisers, the cost of production per acre has increased considerably.
Sources said that cotton growers were continuously being exploited by the textile mill owners. Cotton prices should not be fixed at less than Rs 7000/ maund while the phutti prices should not be less than Rs 3500/maund. According to the recent report of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA), all countrywide ginning factories have so far received seed-cotton (phutti) equivalent to 8.519 million cotton bales that is 7 percent more than that of the previous year's corresponding arrivals.
When Business Recorder contacted a senior official of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), Muhammad Anees, he said, "Due to a considerable reduction in the total consumption of cotton in the world followed by the recent economic recession especially in USA and Europe, the price of cotton has decreased in the domestic market as well. So, the textile mill owners in Pakistan have to purchase the commodity from the ginning factories at comparatively lower rates than expected by the cotton growers".
The Cotton Crop Assessment Committee (CCAC) has already revised downwards the revised projected cotton production to 12.66 million bales against initial estimates of 14.6 million bales for the current season 2012-13. According to estimates, Punjab will produce 9 million bales cotton, Sindh 3.56 million bales while Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will produce 0.1 million bales during the current season.