Interviews
Pakistan slowly loses its cotton global market to India
15 Jun '10
2 min read
Owing to decrease in manufacturing, lack of government's interest, inferior quality of seeds and cotton contamination, and having earned and maintained the global fame of Short Staple Cotton for decades, Pakistan is slowly losing its global market and business to India.
Currently, the Shankar-6, Indian Bt cotton variety, has taken the place of Pakistan's Bt cotton variety in the global market. Till five years ago, Pakistan's Bt cotton was number one and there was no sign of Shankar-6 in the global markets, informed a local spinning unit owner.
Due to presence of foreign particles in cotton bales, the cost of weaving has increased, as the spinning units have to now first concentrate on removing the foreign particles from the bales, which takes up most of the time, thereby surging costs.
As of now, a single spinning unit has to install approximately Rs 30 million worth of sorting machines, apart from hiring almost a dozen of labourers more, for removing the foreign particles from cotton.
Further more, this spinning unit owner also averred that, government should ascertain sales and production of cottonseeds as per the already established standards.
Apparently, five months back, the Punjab Minister for Agriculture, had given a directive to its officials for cleaning-up on seed firms that were involved in the sales of duplicate and poor quality cotton seeds. But till date, no practical actions have been taken on them.
As per an official from the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), currently, Pakistan is producing about 12.5 million bales of cotton, against a demand of 16 million bales. Therefore, if the production rises, the problem of foreign agents polluting the cotton bales might also get solved, as producers then will take more care about this problem, so as to fetch a good price.
Therefore, the current focus for producers should be on hiking the production capacities, as going by the figures, Pakistan is way behind the Indian figures, which is anticipated to be at 33 million bales.
Currently, the Shankar-6, Indian Bt cotton variety, has taken the place of Pakistan's Bt cotton variety in the global market. Till five years ago, Pakistan's Bt cotton was number one and there was no sign of Shankar-6 in the global markets, informed a local spinning unit owner.
Due to presence of foreign particles in cotton bales, the cost of weaving has increased, as the spinning units have to now first concentrate on removing the foreign particles from the bales, which takes up most of the time, thereby surging costs.
As of now, a single spinning unit has to install approximately Rs 30 million worth of sorting machines, apart from hiring almost a dozen of labourers more, for removing the foreign particles from cotton.
Further more, this spinning unit owner also averred that, government should ascertain sales and production of cottonseeds as per the already established standards.
Apparently, five months back, the Punjab Minister for Agriculture, had given a directive to its officials for cleaning-up on seed firms that were involved in the sales of duplicate and poor quality cotton seeds. But till date, no practical actions have been taken on them.
As per an official from the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), currently, Pakistan is producing about 12.5 million bales of cotton, against a demand of 16 million bales. Therefore, if the production rises, the problem of foreign agents polluting the cotton bales might also get solved, as producers then will take more care about this problem, so as to fetch a good price.
Therefore, the current focus for producers should be on hiking the production capacities, as going by the figures, Pakistan is way behind the Indian figures, which is anticipated to be at 33 million bales.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India
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