MULTAN, Nov 4: Although the government has exempted all cotton ginning units from load-shedding, the cotton producers are not expecting that this decision alone will make a significant impact on the price situation.

They have urged the government to protect the farming community from market manipulators too and ensure reasonable returns on their investment.

All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) Chairman Tariq Mehmood said that the farming community was facing the risk of huge financial losses due to load-shedding.

“Cotton crop cannot stand for long in the fields after it matures, and picking and ginning process should start without any delay,” he said, adding the delay was affecting the quality of phutti (seedcotton) and lint.

“Massive load-shedding has not only deteriorated the cotton quality, but it has delayed wheat sowing process in the cotton fields,” he said.

He said volatility in cotton prices had created a lot of problems for the spinners.

“Exemption of ginning units from load-shedding would not address the problem as power interruption at spinning units would have the same impact,” he elaborated.

He said that the textile sector preferred local stuff and ginners could play their role in ensuring fair return to growers.

Rasheed Khan, former chairman of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA), said that cotton prices would improve only when Aptma would speed up purchasing process.

“Almost all spinning units have their power generating units and it is a lame excuse to blame load-shedding for delay in the process,” he observed.

He said that for buying lint at a price of their choice, the textile sector was deliberately delaying lint purchasing process and ginners had no other use of cotton if there was no buyer.

He said that the cotton market was facing slump because the Aptma members were not showing interest to buy lint after the government had exempted the ginning units from load-shedding.

“Prices could be improved if the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) starts cotton procurement immediately,” he suggested.

Khawaja Mohammad Shoaib of Farmers’ Vision Forum said that the textile lobby was creating problems for themselves by not giving a fair price to the cotton growers.

He said that the cotton sowing area was 10 per cent less over the last year’s, and if farmers would not get the reasonable price of their crop they would ultimately switch over to other crops.

He said the supply was less but the textile lobby was not giving even the spot price to farmers matching international parity.

Central General Secretary of the Kissan Board Jam Hazoor Baksh said that ginners were taking the advantage of the situation and were delaying payments to growers who have no option but to sell their crop.

He demanded the government to direct the TCP to start purchase of cotton without any delay.