Spinners in Pakistan resorted to panic buying to replenish their stocks reacting to rumors that India has deferred cotton exports. Due to the short crop last year, spinners imported around 2.8 million cotton bales from India. The crop is expected to be short this season, too, due to less area under cotton sowing. Some cotton growing belts in Pakistan are under pink bollworm after the recent rains. Many cotton growing areas are also facing a white fly attack.

But arrival of seed cotton, particularly in Punjab region, has improved a lot and around 50,000 to 60,000 bales are reaching ginneries per day. In the coming days, the seed cotton flow is expected to see further improvement. Erratic weather and overreliance on GM seeds has resulted in a catastrophic year for the country’s cotton farmers. Last year the cotton crop was extensively damaged by pest attack.

Pakistan is the fourth largest producer of cotton in the world, and also holds the third largest spinning capacity in Asia after China and India. Thousands of ginning and spinning units produce textile products from cotton. The country is the biggest buyer of Indian cotton. Pakistan usually imports about 12 lakh bales of cotton a year.