The Pakistan Cotton Ginner’s Association (PCGA) announced its most recent biweekly figures on Friday, showing a notable 13.3% increase in cotton arrivals in Pakistan as of October 31 compared to October 15.
The report states that the overall amount of cotton that arrived in Pakistan increased by 0.795 million bales to 6.791 million bales as of October 15, 2023, from 5.996 million bales.
The arrival of cotton increased by more than 83% on an annual basis from the 3.708 million bales recorded on October 31, 2022.
Large areas of Pakistan’s agricultural land were damaged by flash floods last year, particularly in Sindh and Balochistan. This had an effect on the country’s cotton crop production, which decreased 34% year over year.
For Pakistan, which is severely cash challenged, the increase in cotton arrivals is a positive development. Cotton is a vital raw material for the textile industry.
The majority of Pakistan’s exports come from the vital textile industry, which is suffering from a decline in demand and worsening economic conditions.
Province-wise breakup
According to PCGA data, Punjab and Sindh both recorded a significant increase in cotton arrivals.
The arrival of cotton in Punjab as of October 31 was recorded as 2.994 million bales, up 17.7% from the 2.543 million bales reported on October 15, 2023. Punjab saw a 44.5% increase in cotton arrivals annually as compared to the 2.072 million bales that were recorded during the same time previous year.
Similarly, 3.797 million bales of cotton arrived in Sindh as opposed to 3.453 million bales recorded on October 15, representing a 10% rise of 0.344 million bales. But in Sindh, where cotton arrivals increased by 132.2 percent compared to 1.635 million bales recorded in SPLY, the YoY increase was more noticeable.
October exports from Pakistan’s textile industry increased year over year to $1.43 billion from $1.36 billion in the same month last year, according to provisional data released by the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) on Thursday. This represents a rise of more than 5%.
This is the first month in 2023 that textile exports have increased year over year.
