Islamabad September 19 2022: As per the latest data released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginner’s Association (PCGA), the cotton arrival in the country decreased by 18.61 percent YoY and reached at 2,186 thousand bales as of 15th September 2022 due to catastrophic climate changes resulting in above normal rainfalls causing floods.
The country has received nearly 190% more rain than the 30-year average in the quarter through August this year, totalling 390.7 millimetres (15.38 inches). Sindh province, with a population of 50 million, was hardest hit, getting 466% more rain than the 30-year average.
“One third of the country is literally under water,” Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman told Reuters, describing the scale of the disaster as “a catastrophe of unknown precedent”.
All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) has estimated 3.5 million bales production losses of cotton crop due to rains and floods in the country.
Cotton arrival in Punjab reached at 1,076 thousand bales as of 15th September 2022 compared to 959 thousand bales in the same period last year, witnessed an increase of 116 thousand bales and 12.16 percent.
Punjab Agriculture Minister Syed Hussain Jahania Gardezi has said that six per cent of the cotton crop has been affected by rains and floods in the province.
Cotton arrival in Sindh reached 1,109 thousand bales on 15th September 2022, compared to 1,726 thousand bales as of 15th September 2021, decline by 35.72 percent YoY and in absolute term 617 thousand bales.
APTMA delegation visited Tanzania so that Pakistan can arrange the lost Cotton at the lowest cost possible on an emergency basis for the sector to continue meeting the export orders. Any delay / non-delivery of export orders will further worsen our ‘Balance of Payments’ which is already under extreme pressure and the industry will lose hard-earned international clients.
