Some textile millers have booked 300,000 bales of cotton of Shankar-6 quality when the prices of Indian cotton were 65 to 70 cent per pound, mostly for February and March delivery, of which, 50,000 bales were delivered in January.
"Mostly textile groups, including Colony Tex, Multan; Crescent Textile, Faisalabad; Suraj-Shams Group, Crescent Board, Karachi; Naseero group have booked 0.3 million bales through the Dubai-based brokers at 63 to 70 cent per pound to run their mills because the local produce is less than consumption", said Aptma's Shaikh Tanveer Ahmed.
Since these rates went down by three cents per pound in the international market, the cotton dealers in Dubai are ready to sell out their stock at 65 cent per pound to Pakistani millers, he added.
India's popular cotton variety is 'Shankar', which was first sown in Amritsar (East Punjab). Later, it was sown in all cotton zones of India because its per acre yield is 1200-kg per acre, and it is similar to Pakistan's variety VH-142, and its seed is used to get Red-4 oil and after ginning its quality, with 80 percent yield, matches with Grade-I cotton of Pakistan, and its staple is 1.07 micronaire and trash is stated to be 2.5 to 4 percent.
The yield on Indian good quality cotton is usually 86 to 87 percent, while good quality cotton of other countries is 98 to 99 percent. So the cheaper price with lower yield makes the Indian cotton equal in value to other good quality cotton.
However, Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) Chairman Seth Jethanand Kohistani has opposed the import of cotton from India or any other country by spending precious foreign exchange, while 1.7 million bales of the high quality have been lying in the stock for sales in local ginneries.
"There is no need of importing cotton from India or any other country when sufficient stock of good quality cotton is available in Pakistan. For this, the buyers need no permission, no arrangements of foreign exchange, and no payment of import duty", said Kohistani.