MULTAN: The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA)’s data committee has released the figure of cotton arrival in ginneries across the country till April 15.
Briefing media men here on Tuesday, PCGA data committee members Malik Talat Iqbal, Salman Maqbool and Asif Khalil said that seed cotton (Phutti) equivalent to over 10,775,162 bales of cotton have reached ginneries across Pakistan, showing a decrease of 6.94 per cent as compared to corresponding period last year when the ginneries received 11,579,181 bales. Ginneries in the Punjab recorded arrival of 6,625,769 bales against the last year arrival of 7,325,758 bales, showing a decrease of 9.56 per cent. Sindh ginneries recorded arrival of 4,149,393 bales while last year it received 4,253,423 bales, showing a decrease of 2.45 per cent. Textile mills have bought 10,021,796 bales while the exporters bought 102,330 bales. The total bales sold out so far were calculated at 10,124,126 bales.
Multan received 243,412 bales (14.2 per cent decrease), Lodhran 146,610 bales (15.27pc decrease), Khanewal 528,048 bales (25.60pc decrease), Muzaffargarh 332,164 bales (12.34pc decrease), Dera Ghazi Khan 475,443 bales (8.57pc increase), Rajanpur 428,681 bales (4.44pc decrease), Layyah 239,090 bales (18.72pc decrease), Vehari 444,928 bales (25.22pc decrease, Sahiwal 212,984 bales (22.81pc decrease), Pakpattan 19,439 bales (50.32pc decrease), Okara 12,600 bales (20.13pc decrease), Toba Tek Singh 161,270 bales (11.84pc decrease), Faisalabad 34,322 bales (15.44pc decrease), Jhang 15,755 bales (26.13pc decrease), Mianwali 108,128 bales (47.56pc decrease), Bhakkar 31,298 bales (63.22pc decrease), Rahimyar Khan 1,193,531 bales (11.25 increase), Bahawalnagar 1,008,021 bales 91.91 per cent decrease), Bahawalpur 990,045 bales (3.39pc decrease, Hyderabad 237,077 bales (6.07pc decrease), Mirpur Khas (Thar) 122,224 bales (44.79pc decrease), Sangarh 128,969 bales (6.77pc decrease), Nawabshah 384,173 bales (10.30pc increase), Naushero Feroze 366,179 bales (2.43pc decrease), Khairpur 37,561 bales (11.12pc increase), Ghotki 455,138 bales (18.14pc increase), Sukkur 624,763 bales (1.3pc increase), Dadu 69,036 bales (0.21pc decrease), Jamshoro 103,791 bales (20.23pc decrease), Badin 4,400 bales (74.62pc decrease), and Balochistan 117,852 bales (0.99pc increase.
Total eight ginning factories are operational in the country. Of them, seven are in the Punjab and one in Sindh.
Total 809,195 bales are lying in unsold stock. They told that the data was collected with the joint cooperation of PCGA, APTMA and KCA. The Cotton Crop Assessment Committee (CCAC) may revise cotton production estimates to 10.5 million bales of 170kg each for this season, down from earlier projection of 10.87m bales. The predictions dashed all hopes of harvesting a bumper cotton crop in 2018/19. The country's overall cotton production has deteriorated over the years in turn, affecting the gross domestic product. The country's last bumper cotton crop of 14.9m bales was harvested in 2013-14. Under the revision, production in Sindh is expected to witness a shortfall of merely 0.1 million bales to 0.12m bales. The province produced 4.253m bales in last season.
Production estimates for Balochistan were also revised upward to 0.15m, which are lower than the last year’s output. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is expected to produce around 0.02m bales. The country's cotton production has been under stress during the last the four years.
11 outlaws arrested: Police arrested 11 outlaws involved in various crimes and recovered narcotics from their possession.
Teams of different police stations raided various areas and arrested six outlaws and recovered 670 gram charas and 30 litres of liquor from their possession.
The outlaws included Nadeem, Mehfooz, Zafar, Azhar, Ameen and Shazia. Another five outlaws involved in illegal business of petrol and gas refilling units were arrested from different areas of the city.