Pakistan imports 3.2m cotton bales worth Rs 45b

Textile mills have imported a record 3.2 million bales of cotton worth Rs 45 billion till February 2008 from worldwide sources due to crop shortage in the country, Cotton Brokers Forum (CBF) Chairman Naseem Usman said.

Referring to provisional trade data of Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) for a period between August 2007 to February 2008, mills have imported about 519,053 metric tons of cotton, he said. "This is the highest ever import of cotton in the history of Pakistan in a specific period. The huge import of cotton has slowed down cotton trade in the market, he added. Usman pointed out that more than half of this import was from India where cotton production has recorded unprecedented surge since it began cultivation of Bt cotton.

Source: APP