Pakistan's Cotton Production Up 9.9%

Market News

Pakistan's Cotton Production Up 9.9%

Pakistan has produced 10.725 million cotton bales so far in this season, up 9.87% from a year ago. However, the output remained less than the average of around 14-15 million bales recorded up to the 2014-15 season.

Fortnightly arrival figures released by Pakistan Cotton Ginners' Association (PCGA) show production up to the second half of March stood higher by 963,593 bales on a year-on-year basis. Cotton crop suffered mostly in Punjab for the last two consecutive years as its output declined up to 40%. But there is an improvement of 15.72% this year as the output stood at 6.938 million bales against 5.996 million bales produced last year.

However, cotton production in Sindh has been normal. The province produced 3.787 million bales this year, up 0.56% from a year ago. Exporters were unable to keep the pace though. They booked only 202,356 bales this year against 362,141 bales a year ago. Ginners are holding unsold stocks of 354,557 bales compared to last year when they held 488,001 bales in the same period.

Cotton target fixed at 14.4 million bales

Cotton crop is to be cultivated over 3.118 million hectares of land across Pakistan during the current sowing season (2017-18) in order to fulfill the domestic requirements as well as exports. Cotton crop production targets during the season were fixed at 14.40 million bales as against the production targets of 14.1 million bales of last year, said Cotton Commissioner Dr Khalid Abdullah. He said that cotton crop is to be cultivated over 2.429 million hectares of land in Punjab, whereas in Sindh it would be sown over 0.650 million hectares of land.

Cotton would be cultivated in over 0.038 million hectares of land in Balochistan and on about 0.001 million hectares in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa respectively, he added.