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Aptma seeks local industry's participation in bids for cotton sale

Recorder Report

Lahore: The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) has urged the government to allow participation of spinning industry in the bids for the purchase of cotton procured by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP).

Stating this, Abid Farooq, convenor of the central managing committee of Aptma, said in a statement here on Friday that despite repeated appeals, TCP is keeping the local industry out of the bidding and selling quality cotton to competitor countries in the international markets. Export parity price of Pakistani cotton recently offered at 44 US cents that comes to about Rs 1,680 per maund whereas the industry is being forced to buy inferior cotton at Rs 2,000 per maund. This is because bidding by the TCP is not open as they are barring the participants of local industry from the bidding process and offering cotton at lower than the price that can be obtained in the open competition, he added.

He maintained that the consumption of cotton started to grow as the prices became viable for the industry. The present mill consumption has risen to 0.75 million bales per month, which gives a positive consumption of nine million bales by August 2000. The rise in demand of cotton can still be termed "suppressed demand" as the market develops and textile industry recovers and it could easily consume more than 9 million bales.

The TCP started buying cotton when the quality cotton was at its peak. The availability of quality cotton at cheap rates to our competitors would pose serious threats to the export of textiles. The TCP should allow participation of the local industry in its bids for the sale of cotton, he asserted.