Despite claims of being self-sufficient in cotton production, Pakistan imported two million bales of cotton worth Rs 40 billion. Well-placed sources told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that total cotton import from India so far stood at two million bales while deals of 4-5 lac bales were in the pipeline.
Pakistan missed the cotton production target for 2010-11 by producing 11.7 million bales against the target of 14 million bales due to devastating floods. The estimated loss to the cotton crop due to last year''s flash floods in cotton growing areas of Punjab and Sindh stands at over Rs 120 billion. Pakistan is the world''s fourth biggest cotton producer, but often has to import to meet the demand of local textile sector, which accounts for about 60 per cent of the total exports.
"The overall domestic requirement of the country stands at 15.5 million bales but due to the shortage of gas and electricity, most of the textile units have closed their business. So, the domestic market''s requirement has decreased to 14.5 million bales," the sources said.
Sources said that Pakistan would cultivate cotton on 8.01 million acres this year, which is about eight per cent higher than the area under the crop last year. Sources said that India increased its production from 14.0 million 170-Kg bales in 2003-2004 to 33.28 million 170-Kg bales in 2010-11 - an increase of 136.0 per cent in eight years by increasing cotton growing area just about 44 per cent. "Now the Indian cotton exporters, who have one million cotton bales in stock have asked the cotton importers world-wide to place their orders," they added.
Cotton sowing has been completed in Punjab but shortage of urea fertiliser has raised doubts in the minds regarding the productivity of the crop. A senior official of the Punjab Agriculture department told this scribe, "The government has decided to import 50,000 tons of urea in the very first week of July from China and Russia but the Ministry of Finance has directed the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to extend the deal by importing additional 50,000 tons."
The agriculture sector in the country registered 1.2 per cent growth during the financial year 2010-11 as against the growth target of 3.8 per cent and previous year''s performance of 0.6 per cent. Major crops accounting for 31.1 per cent of agriculture value-added, registered a negative growth of 4.0 per cent for second year in a row mainly because of decrease in production of rice and cotton 99.9 and 11.3 per cent, respectively. Minor crops accounting for 10.9 per cent of overall agriculture value-addition grew by 4.8 per cent as against the negative growth of last two years.
"But it is too late now and would have an adverse impact upon the crop''s productivity as in the domestic market, due to shortage of the commodity it is being sold at Rs 1500 per 50 kg bag in spite of Rs 1250 per 50 kg. Obviously, the poor farmers can not afford it all," the official said. He added, "not only cotton, the other major crops like rice and sugar cane would also effected".