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Cotton growers seek govt intervention for payment
MULTAN-The cotton growers have appealed to the government to
pressurise the ginners to make them payments for their
produce.
The growers say that so far some nine million bales of cotton
has reached the ginneries, out which over seven million bales
have been sold mainly to the textile mills in Punjab and Sindh.
According to a report of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners
Association (PCGA), till Feb 01, a total of 9.011 million
bales arrived at the ginneries, out of which 6.932 million
bales were sold to the textile mills, 0.118 to the Trading
Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) and 0.011 million bales to the
exporters.
According to the PCGA report, only 1.511 million bales of
cotton was lying with the ginners as unsold stocks. Another
0.428 million bales of cotton was lying at the ginneries which
was yet to be ginned and pressed into bales.
According to an estimate, the growers are withholding one
million bales of phutti at their farms and want to sell but
they do not find any buyer. Although this year the cotton
production is likely to be less compared to the last year it
is a riddle that the cotton is not attracting any domestic
buyer.
The Federal Agriculture Minister Khair Muhammad Junejo some
three months back had announced to give Rs 8-10 billion to the
TCP for the purchase of one million bales of lint at Rs 1,855
per maund. And the government fixed the support price of
phutti at 780 per 40 kg.
On Jan 25, when the State Bank Governor Dr Ishrat Hussain was
here in Multan he told newsmen and a delegation of growers
that the SBP had released Rs 10 billion to the TCP for the
cotton purchase. But the PCGA Chairman Sheikh Muhammad Saeed
has complained that the TCP is not purchasing the silver fibre.
So far it has bought only 0.118 million bales, which is just 8
per cent of its target.
On the other hand, some three years back, the government had
allowed a free import and export of cotton. Under the same
policy, which is still intact, a spokesman of the PCGA said,
the textile mills owners have imported 0.4 million bales and
more contracts for the import of 0.7 million bales have been
signed at a time when the local produce is beyond their
consumption.
The spokesman said although the textile mills owners import
cotton at prices higher than the local one they use these
stocks as a trick to suppress the rates on the local market.
As for the international market, he said, at present, the rate
is 43 cents a pound, which for Pakistani cotton is 38 cents.
This comes to Rs 1,700 per maund. This rate is not that bad
but it is not attractive for the local exporter, who is almost
inactive.
About the foreign buyers, the PCGA spokesman said they are
Indonesia, Japan, Bangladesh and Korea. Egypt and China have a
surplus cotton.
He said the ginners don’t have money to purchase more cotton
from the growers or make payments to them for the lifted
phutti. They also find it difficult to clear the bank loans
and overdrafts unless their withheld stocks are lifted by the
APTMA and the TCP.
The growers say that the raw cotton, phutti or seed-cotton
which they produce to the tune of 150 million maunds pumps Rs
125 billion into the national economy per annum. And if its
products such as yarn, garments, towels, hosiery, bedsheets,
cloth etc are accounted for, the cotton value is doubled,
which is the huge and major contribution to the national
economy. The whole edifice of our economy rests on cotton.
Without it the economy may collapse.
The cotton-growers stress that if the government spends Rs 3-4
billion to offset the TCP loss to save the country’s Rs 200
billion-plus cotton-based economy it won’t be a bad bargain or
unwise sacrifice or imprudent investment. Saving cotton
growers means nothing but saving the national economy, they
argue.
In India the agriculture sector is offered free-of-cost
electricity for the tube-wells and the result is that its
agriculture and hence its economy is getting stronger and
stronger.
In the United States, the growers’ produce is purchased by the
government and then it becomes state’s headache how to dispose
of the production.
The PCGA spokesman said at the moment, the lint rates range
from Rs 1,300 to Rs 1,675, while that of phutti from Rs 600 to
700 per maund.
The growers say that the government had committed to activate
the TCP whenever the phutti rate goes down below the level of
Rs 780, which is the support price announced by the
government.
The farmers fear that although they may divert to other crops
for their survival the country’s economy may not revive once
it is deeply dented due to abandoning of the cotton crop.
They apprehend that due to non-availability of adequate money
even the wheat standing crop is feared to face a setback and
the production may decline beyond estimates of the experts.
February 16, 2002
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Pakissan.com;
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