Pakistan’s production of cotton bales so far this season has fallen 33.5 per cent compared to the same period last year. The estimate is that the country is not going to produce more than 9.7 million bales this season, significantly lower than last season’s production of 14.9 million bales.

The spinning industry’s annual consumption of cotton stands at around 14.5 million bales. The industry has so far booked around 2.5 million cotton bales for imports, out of which two million bales have been imported from India. Imports could touch 3.5 to four million bales.

Due to the short crop, the spinning industry could only purchase 7.271 million bales compared to 11.457 million bales in the same period last season. Ginners are also holding lesser stocks of unsold cotton at 1.652 million bales as against 2.016 million bales held in the same period last season.

Heavy rains and floods coupled with inferior quality seed and pesticides have had their toll over the standing cotton crop in Punjab. The crop failure in Punjab is not only going to hit GDP but would also increase unemployment and poverty levels.

Since very little cotton is left back in the fields for picking, only 280 ginning units are currently operating in Punjab compared to 799 that functioned last year in the same period.