New cotton season 2014-15 started in Pakistan with some 4,000 maund phutti reaching ginning factories of Punjab. According to ginners, phutti (equal to 300 bales) arrived at two ginning factories of Haroonabad, Punjab. Ginners are expecting that two factories of Shahdadpur are also likely to start operation during the week to start supply of new cotton crop to textile mills.
"Previously, the new cotton season had started from Badin, Thatta, Sindh and Ghuddo, however, now the season is kicked off from Punjab as sowing in Sindh is delayed due to cyclone," said Ehsan-ul-Haq, a leading cotton trader. He said new cotton phutti is being traded at Rs 3,200-3,400 per maund, however prices are likely to decline in coming days, when the arrival of phutti will gradually increase.
The federal government has set a cotton production target of 15.15 million bales for the year 2014-15 against cotton production of 13.931 million bales in 2013-14, Haq said. Punjab has been given a target of 10.5 million bales, Sindh 4.2 million bales, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhawa 0.45 million bales during the current season, he added. He said better cotton will support the country's largest textile sector, which recently got GSP Plus status from the EU countries for next 10 years, depending on performance. "We are expecting that in coming days quality cotton demand will increase in the local market," Haq maintained.
Comments
Comments are closed.