FAISALABAD:The Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) has said 2.5 million bales of cotton are urgently required for the textile industry.
In a statement here on Friday, PTEA Chairman Sohail Pasha said that torrential rains coupled with heavy floods had damaged cotton fields besides affecting the textile sector. In Punjab, many cotton producing areas had suffered from heavy damages due to rains, he said and added that the cotton crop over 210,000 acres of land had been affected badly due to unprecedented floods.
He pointed out that a shortfall in cotton production was expected this year because floods had washed away about half of the total cotton crop in the country.
He said that cotton production was expected around 5.5 million bales this year whereas domestic consumption was estimated at least 12 million bales per annum. So minimum six million bales shortfall was expected which had left with no option but to import raw cotton from other countries.