Cotton arrivals in Pakistan fall 60% due to crop damage, lower acreage

The sharp drop in cotton production is attributed to a lower cotton sowing area, drought conditions during June and July this year, and attacks of whitefly and pink bollworm. Pakistan's cotton production has decreased again after a higher yield in the last season of 2023-24. In the year 2022-23, production had also declined due to the cotton crop being destroyed by extremely heavy rains.

Cotton arrivals began in July 2024, as they did last year. The flow of arrivals was quite slow during the initial period of the current season. The latest reports suggest that cotton production will be lower than in the last season. Cotton influx typically begins in August each year; however, in the last two seasons, it started in July due to early sowing.

A provincial breakdown of the data showed that Sindh province recorded cotton arrivals of 773,091 bales up to August 31, 2024, which was 60.80 per cent lower than the 1.972 million bales recorded up to August 31, 2023. Meanwhile, Punjab witnessed the arrival of 452,855 bales, compared to 1,068,796 bales as of August 31, 2023. Therefore, Pakistan’s second-largest cotton-growing region has seen a sharp drop of 57.63 per cent during the current season.

The country reported a cotton arrival of 8.396 million bales during the marketing year 2023-24, which was 70.94 per cent higher than the aggregate arrival of 4.912 million bales in 2022-23, as documented in the final arrival data of the PCGA.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (KUL)