KARACHI: Pakistan’s textile manufacturers expect cotton imports to surge to as much as $3 billion this year, double last year’s bill, after floods devastated key growing areas in Punjab and now threaten Sindh, industry officials and analysts said.
The monsoon deluges, which have already swamped central Punjab, the nation’s breadbasket, are moving south toward Sindh, the country’s second-largest cotton belt, raising fears that further damage to fields will deepen losses in the days ahead. Agriculture makes up nearly a quarter of GDP and employs almost half of the labor force, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
“Probably, our cotton import can exceed $2.5 to $3 billion this year alone,” said Kamran Arshad, chairman of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), adding that millers imported $1.5 billion worth of cotton last year from Brazil, the United States, Africa and Australia.
Arshad said cotton-growing areas in central Punjab such as Vehari, Mailsi, Chichawatni and Burewala had been “negatively affected,” while some genetically modified Bt cotton crops were also under water.
“This can lead to a crisis, because a lot of people will be losing their livelihoods. Their crops will be at stake,” he said, urging the government to declare a national emergency and curb luxury imports to conserve foreign exchange.
