Pakistan sees 2.5m cotton bales imported in Apr-Jun

Pakistan sees 2.5m cotton bales imported in Apr-Jun
Thu Feb 4, 2010 3:13pm IST

* Imports of about 2.5 mln bales on cards
* Imports to fill demand from hungry textile sector
* Supplies from neighbour and rival cheaper, quicker

By Augustine Anthony
KARACHI, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Pakistan will need to import about 2.5  
million bales in the last quarter of the financial year to June 2010  
to mop up demand, traders said on Thursday, with most of the supplies  
expected to come from neighbouring India.

Pakistan is the world's fourth biggest cotton producer but often has  
to turn to imports to meet the demand of its textile sector, which  
accounts for about 60 percent of exports.

World cotton output is forecast to rise 10 percent to 24.2 million  
tonnes in 2010/11, led by larger production from China, an  
international farm group said last month. [ID:nN04249247].
Pakistan's output from the 2009/10 crop year that runs from April to  
March is projected at 12.70 million bales, compared with 11.8 million  
the previous year. Domestic consumption fluctuates between 14 million  
and 16 million bales a year.

Ginners have stocks of 800,000 bales as of Jan. 31, compared with 1.5  
million bales at the same time last year, with another 200,000 bales  
expected from the remaining 2009/10 crop, traders said, meaning  
supplies will dry up by the end of March.

"There is no stock after that and we will have to import about 2.5  
million bales to meet demand for the April-June quarter," Sohail  
Naseem, chairman of the private Karachi Cotton Association (KCA), told  
Reuters."Most of the supplies are expected from India as it costs less in  

transportation and takes fewer days for delivery as compared to other  
sources."

Another prominent trader, Naseem Usman, estimated total imports for  
the April-June quarter at between 1.5 million and 2.0 million bales,  
as roughly 600,000 bales had already been imported and some more were  
in the pipeline.

"INDIAN COTTON"
While some supplies will be coming from other sources such as Brazil,  
Pakistan would mostly be relying on India for cotton, said Usman, who  
heads the Karachi Cotton Brokers Forum.

India is likely to harvest 29.5 million bales of cotton in 2009/10,  
and A.B. Joshi, India's textile commissioner and chairman of its  
Cotton Advisory Board, said in November Indian cotton exports were  
expected to jump 57 percent to 5.5 million bales in 2009/10.  
[ID:nBOM523445]

For years, trade has been limited between the nuclear-armed rivals,  
which have fought three wars since their independence in 1947 and  
nearly went to war a fourth time in 2002.

Relations touched new lows after India suspended a peace process with  
Pakistan started in 2004, following an assault on the Indian financial  
capital of Mumbai by Pakistan-based militants in November 2008.

KCA chairman Naseem said that while Indian cotton production had  
surged significantly in the last decade, Pakistan's cotton output had  
become stagnant at about 12 million bales over the past few years.
Pakistan's cotton output in 2008/09 fell to 11.8 million bales against  
a target of 14.1 million, mainly because of a water shortage and pest  
attacks, and a 7.7 percent cut in the area under cotton cultivation  
from the year before.

The government had set a target of 13.36 million bales for the 2009/10  
crop after the area under cultivation increased to 3.2 million  
hectares (7.9 million acres) from 2.8 million hectares last year, but  
attacks by pests and cotton leaf curl virus have taken a toll. (1  
bale=170 kg) (Editing by Robert Birsel, Clarence Fernandez)