Cotton output expected to touch 12.5 million bales
23 Dec '09
1 min read
The expected output of the cotton crop in the current cotton year is likely to touch 12.5 million bales. This compares favourably with production of 11.8 million bales achieved in the previous cotton year.
At the beginning of the sowing season, the Pakistan government had set a target of 13.36 million bales for the 2009/10 crop after the area under cultivation increased to 3.2 million hectares from 2.8 million hectares last year.
But pest attacks and reports of the cotton being affected by the curl leaf virus in major cotton producing regions of Punjab and Sindh, compelled the government to revise the targets to 12.0 million bales.
Pakistan is the fourth biggest cotton producer in the world and in the current season has exported a major and unprecedented quantity of cotton, due to a huge demand from its overseas markets.