Cotton import from India to reach 3.5m bales

By Razi Syed

KARACHI: The cotton import from India is estimated to be at around 3.5 million bales this season, due to a growing demand of textile and spinning sectors, traders said on Monday.

They said despite the government’s target of 14.14 million cotton bales for the crop season 2007-08, there would be a shortfall of around 3.1 million bales.

A senior trader, Ghulam Rabbani, said according to the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), among top ten global producers of cotton, China is likely to produce 29.96 million bales (each bale 480 pounds) in 2007-08, the USA will stand second in production with 19.66 million bales, India will produce 21.45 million bales and Pakistan will produce 10.16 million bales. The total world production is likely to reach 115.83 million bales.

He said the world consumption is estimated around 122.64 million bales, a shortfall of 6.81 million bales. China is the top consumer of global cotton with 50.04 million bales, India with 19.24 million bales, Pakistan with 12.20 million bales and the USA with 4.50 million bales.

He said the world production would face a shortfall around 6.81 million bales, while Pakistan would face a shortfall of around 3 million bales.

Mr Rabbani said the mills purchased around 11.80 million bales up till May 1, out of the total production of 12.40 million bales in crop season 2006-07.

The mills also imported 1.75 million bales from the USA, India and other major cotton cultivation countries during this period, he added.

The spinning sector bought the remaining lots of around 600,000 bales besides imports from India and the USA, which stand at around 100,000 bales during this period.

He said in Punjab, cotton would be sown on 6.326 million acres and Sindh cultivate cotton on 1.581 million acres. NWFP and Balochistan will share the remaining 0.14 million area for cotton production in 2007-08.

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