Pakistan’s cotton arrivals reached 4.742 million bales by 31 October, up 6.88 per cent on the same point last season, but the national improvement hides a sharp split between the south and central Punjab, and a second straight year with no arrivals at all from Okara.
Figures from the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) show ginning factories took in 4.742 million bales, against 4.437 million a year earlier, a gain of about 305,000 bales. The Sindh Zone, which includes Balochistan in PCGA reporting, accounted for 2.743 million bales, up 8.52 per cent, while Punjab recorded 1.998 million bales, up 4.71 per cent.
Sindh alone, excluding Balochistan, contributed 2.539 million bales, more than half of the national total, despite having roughly half of Punjab’s cotton area. Balochistan grew fastest in percentage terms, rising 35.41 per cent to 204,000 bales.
Central Punjab moved the other way. Ten districts across the Sahiwal, Faisalabad and Sargodha divisions together recorded just 159,000 bales, down 26.97 per cent from 218,000 last year, leaving the region with only 3.36 per cent of national arrivals.
Pakpattan, Okara and Sargodha each reported zero arrivals for the second consecutive year, while Kasur managed only 1,200 bales. Sahiwal fell 31.94 per cent to 59,000 bales, Faisalabad dropped 25.97 per cent, and Bhakkar recorded the steepest fall, down 61.71 per cent.
Ginners Forum chairman Ihsanul Haq linked the peak-season decline mainly to sugarcane expanding into traditional cotton areas, alongside new sugar mills, and to high temperatures that hurt germination and fibre quality. He said the weaker fibre had also pushed textile mills towards imported high-quality cotton.
Textile mills have bought about 3.996 million bales, or 84.27 per cent of arrivals, leaving around 648,000 bales unsold with ginners. Despite the smaller cultivated area, Haq said the crop could still pass six million bales, helped in part by digital invoicing bringing more trade into formal records.
