The Role
of Cotton in Pakistan
Pakistan is the
fifth largest producer of cotton in the world, the third
largest exporter of raw cotton, the fourth largest
consumer of cotton, and the largest exporter of cotton
yarn. 1.3 million farmers (out of a total of 5 million)
cultivate cotton over 3 million hectares, covering 15
per cent of the cultivable area in the country. Cotton
and cotton products contribute about 10 per cent to GDP
and 55 per cent to the foreign exchange earnings of the
country. Taken as a whole, between 30 and 40 per cent of
the cotton ends up as domestic consumption of final
products. The remaining is exported as raw cotton, yarn,
cloth, and garments.
Cotton production supports Pakistan’s largest industrial
sector, comprising some 400 textile mills, 7 million
spindles, 27,000 looms in the mill sector (including
15,000 shuttleless looms), over 250,000 looms in the
non-mill sector, 700 knitwear units, 4,000 garment units
(with 200,000 sewing machines), 650 dyeing and finishing
units (with finishing capacity of 1,150 million square
meters per year), nearly 1,000 ginneries, 300 oil
expellers, and 15,000 to 20,000 indigenous, small scale
oil expellers (kohlus). It is by any measure Pakistan’s
most important economic sector. Not surprisingly,
government policy has generally been used to maintain a
stable and often relatively low domestic price of
cotton, especially since 1986-87 through the imposition
of export duties, in order to support domestic industry.
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