Pakistan’s cotton industry is experiencing an encouraging resurgence as farmers deliver 1.428 million bales of cotton to processing ginning factories which raises the hopes that the country may cross the 10 million bales mark first time in the last five years.

According to the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association’s latest report, the supplies received by August 1, 2023, showed an impressive 66.5 percent year-on-year rise.

Punjab witnessed a staggering 95 percent increase in cotton arrivals compared to the previous year, contributing 388,568 bales to the overall production. Similarly, Sindh reported a significant 57.8 percent rise in cotton arrivals, adding 1.04 million bales to the national tally.

The cotton sector, critical to Pakistan’s economy, has faced challenges in boosting production in recent times as farmers shifted to other crops. As a result, the country struggled to meet the massive demand of textile producers, estimated at 16 million bales.

To bridge the supply-demand gap, textile exporters were compelled to import cotton, leading to a significant expenditure of foreign currency amounting to $4 billion in 2023-24 to maintain export earnings of roughly $25 billion.

The country’s average cotton production currently stands at 10 to 12 million bales per annum, falling short of the ambitious target of 20 million bales. Last year’s devastating floods exacerbated the crisis, resulting in the lowest harvest in around four decades, with only 4.9 million bales produced during the 2022-23 sowing season, a stark contrast to the previous season’s yield of 7.44 million bales.

In an effort to reverse this trend, Pakistan has set a cotton crop target of 12.77 million bales for the current year, cultivating approximately 6.834 million acres of land nationwide. Farmer lobbies stress the importance of balanced fertilizer usage to enhance per-acre yield, especially for cotton, wheat, rice, sugarcane, and maize.

Pakistan’s Cotton production has dropped 65 percent from 14 million bales in 2013-14 to 4.9 million bales last year and the country will be spending $4 billion on cotton import to meet the industry demand and retain the export earnings. The revival of the cotton sector is crucial not only for the textile industry, as cotton serves as its basic raw material, but also as a valuable export commodity capable of bringing in substantial foreign exchange.

Source: ProPakistani