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Cotton arrivals belie official assessment of over 11m bales

RECORDER REPORT

MULTAN: Latest cotton arrival figures released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) have belied the official assessment of a crop size well over 11 million bales.

PCGA figures issued here on Monday revealed that up to February 1st a total of 9.244 million bales of cotton had arrived at some 899 ginneries of the country. Of which, as many as 8.9 million had been ginned in bales.

Of the pressed (ginned) bales, textile sector had purchased some 7.128 million bales against its corresponding period's purchases of 5.33 million bales of last year. Similarly, exporters had procured 177,000 bales against their last year's cotton buying of 3,000 bales. However, the Trading Corporation of Pakistan is a third buyer which lifted 509,000 bales up to February 1.

Because of favourable climatic conditions and cotton varieties that matured early, cotton picking in the fields started a month ahead of its usual picking schedule last year. Therefore, 'deceptive' figures of cotton arrival started to surprise the analysts as everyone involved in cotton business started forecasting a bumper crop that might even beat the record of 1991-92 when the country had a production well over 10 million bales.

Cotton pundits of Pakistan Central Cotton Assessment Committee (PCCAC),its monthly meetings, started concluding about 11.5 to 12 million bales production. On these assessments, Ministry of Commerce announced making arrangements for export of two to 2.5 million surplus bales.

A PCGA spokesman told Business Recorder that the February 1st figures should be assumed as almost the final figure although a little addition to it was expected in the coming days.