Central Chairman Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PRGMEA) Ijaz A. Khokhar has announced to hold a roundtable meeting of textile industry stakeholders on prevailing cotton crisis soon. He has invited about 20 associations relating to farmers, ginners, cotton exporters, spinners, weavers, value-added exporters and other stakeholders to attend the roundtable meeting on the cotton crisis.
In a letter sent to the heads of all associations, Chairman PRGMEA said the domestic cotton market has fallen to Rs5,000 PWE Maund from Rs15,000 per maund in no time with the burst of cotton price bubble internationally. The cotton crisis amidst much-likely bumper crop of 16 million bales ahead will have ripple effect right from cotton farmers, basic textile to the value-added industry, he apprehended.
Also, said Chairman PRGMEA, about 30 per cent surplus cotton crop in neighbouring India would blow the industry further especially in the absence of fresh buying spree from China in next two months. He feared that this situation would expose the local cotton farmer to devastating effects and the Trading Corporation of Pakistan intervention, as demanded by the farmers and ginners desperately, will be of no use.
According to him, there is an urgent need of generating demand for consumption of local raw material in the larger interest of cotton farmers and to safeguard historic $14 billion share of textile industry in country’s exports. Achieving the goal of generating demand for local raw material, he continued, is the real challenge for textile industry. It is right time to joint our heads and deliberate some out of box solutions for mutual interest, he asserted. Chairman PRGMEA has expressed the hope that the textile industry stakeholders would support his proposal of a roundtable meeting to save the cotton farmers and millions of textile workers in country.
