Pakistan’s cotton production reaches 1.73m bales

Total seed cotton (phutti) received in Pakistani cotton ginning factories from this year’s cotton crop has reached an equivalent of 1.75 million cotton bales as of August 31, 2012, according to the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA). According to the latest domestic production figures, released by PCGA, arrivals of seed cotton (phutti) in all cotton ginning factories of the country have totalled enough to produce 1,731,245 bales of cotton. An equivalent of 967,654 cotton bales has been received in ginning factories in Punjab, and an equivalent of 763,591 cotton bales in ginning factories in Sindh. According to the PCGA report, textile mills have purchased 1,507,767 cotton bales from ginning factories up to August 31, 2012” while an additional 2,000 cotton bales have been exported. The report further reveals that 221,478 cotton bales are still lying unsold as of August 31. Among these 47,347 are pressed bales, whereas 174, 121 bales are in the form of un-ginned phutti held in stock in ginning factories. According to the report, 286 ginning factories in Punjab and 154 ginning factories in Sindh are currently in operation. Ihsan-ul-Haq, executive member of the PCGA, has said that this is the first time the first report on final figures of country-wide cotton production has been issued on August 31” a month ahead of the routine date of September 30. He said that this year, due to early sowing (during February-March) in most areas of Punjab and Sindh, arrivals of the new cotton crop -as well as cotton ginning - also began earlier in the second week of June. This enabled the compilation of a comprehensive report on production figures before time” meanwhile, he added, the report will be updated fortnightly up to April 30, 2013. From gulftoday