All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Chairman Rahim Nasir told WealthPK that cotton production in Pakistan has dropped to less than eight million bales this year as against the estimated consumption of 13 million bales due to water shortage, fake pesticides and poor pest management.

A day earlier an agreement was signed between APTMA and the International Cotton Association (ICA) to enhance cooperation on the cotton needs of the textile industry in Pakistan.

ICA President Alex Hsu said the visit of the association’s delegation was taking place under its outreach to Pakistan initiative. He was accompanied by Managing Director Bill Kingdon and Director Carl Peltzer. Mr Nasir welcomed the delegation along with Hamid Zaman, Chairman of Northern Zone, Kamran Arshad, Senior Vice Chairman, and Secretary General Raza Baqir.

Mr Hsu said the association would hold a training seminar in Pakistan on the ICA rules next month. The objective of the seminar would be to apprise the APTMA members of the cotton trade, challenges and possible solutions to the issues being faced by Pakistani cotton buyers at the hands of suppliers.

“We are looking forward to strengthening our ties regionally and building relationships with an important textile country in South Asia, having significant ICA membership and playing major international role in yarn and textile manufacturing. The purpose of our visit is to learn first-hand how current market conditions, logistic challenges and retail demands are affecting cotton trade with reference to Pakistan,” he said.

The ICA delegation addressed the issues raised by the APTMA members relating to membership, dispute resolution and delayed shipments, etc. The delegates also updated the APTMA members about the best global practices in the cotton and textile trade being adopted by various countries to meet the new challenges.

The APTMA chairman offered its premises to hold the ICA training session and asked the foreign association to set up its office for better coordination. He said cotton is an important cash crop for Pakistan and a major raw material for its textile industry, representing 75% in the fibre mix of the textile industry products, which provides livelihood to 25 million people in Pakistan.

According to him, the present demand for cotton in Pakistan is at least 13 million bales. Coupled with other fundamental issues, he said, the cotton import bill jumped to around US$1.8 billion in FY 22. Pakistan is emerging as a cotton importing country but the importers are not fully aware of the ICA rules and their rights as buyers.

He said there is a general impression that the arbitration proceedings are biased in favour of the suppliers. Similarly, he added, there are also complaints regarding high arbitration fee for non-members of the ICA.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk