Pakistan is likely to produce enough cotton to meet this year's demand of domestic textile industry, in spite of the crop being affected by heavy rains in Sindh province, Federal Minister for Textile Makhdoom Shahabuddin has said.
During a meeting with Chairmen of Value Adding Textile Associations, the Minister said though the torrential rains destroyed 80 percent of the cotton crop in Sindh, the country's overall cotton yield for the current season is likely to come to 12.5 billion bales, which would be sufficient to meet the demands of domestic textile industry till next cotton yield comes to the market.
He said Punjab province has produced bumper cotton crop this year and will compensate for the loss of crop in Sindh. He added that around 80 percent of the estimated cotton yield of the country, that is, around 10 billion bales is likely to come from Punjab, while the rest 2.5 billion bales would come from Sindh.
Shahid Rashid, Secretary of the Ministry of Textile Industry, stated that unlike past two years when viruses badly hit cotton crop in Punjab, this year has been largely virus free.
Prior to the torrential rains and the resulting floods, it was estimated that the provinces of Punjab and Sindh would together produce 15 billion bales of cotton during the current season, Mr. Rashid said. Even after the rains the country is likely to have good yield, but may be required to import around 1.5 billion bales of cotton to ensure adequate availability of raw inputs for the domestic textile industry, he added.
The Textile Minister assured the textile entrepreneurs and exporters that his Ministry would try its best to resolve all the issues confronting the textile industry, particularly the one concerned with clearance of duty drawback refund claims of the value-added textile industry, under the Drawback of Local Taxes and Levies.
He also assured them that he would discuss the issue of Export Development Fund, intended for promoting the textile industry, with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and other concerned Government authorities.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
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