KARACHI: Cotton production has increased 10.6 per cent year-on-year to 10.634 million bales this season, Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) said on Friday.

During the outgoing fortnight (Jan 15 to Feb 1), however, cotton output fell 28pc to 98,785 bales.

Cotton analyst Naseem Usman believed the growth of 10.6pc was not enough and it only represented a short recovery. The previous PCGA report (for the fortnight ending Jan 15) reported the growth at 11.2pc.

Due to short crop, spinners are striving to meet their consumption demand which stands at around 14.5m bales.

Tariq Saud, former chairman of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association, said the country would have to import around 3.5m to 4m bales.

Punjab`s cotton production has risen 17pc to 6.849m bales this time around. The province has made significant improvement this year as its output plummeted 44pc last season. Sindh`s production almost stayed flat at 3.784m bales this season.

Spinners have so far purchased higher quantity of cotton this season which stood at 9.515m bales as against 8.032m bales a year earlier. In contrast, exporters have booked only 202,356 bales compared to 358,418 bales during the comparable period of the last season.

At present, ginners have 916,793 bales of cotton in stock compared to 1.221m bales a year ago.

During past two months, cotton output has sharply declined in as many as 21 districts of Punjab, the PCGA report said. The drop was between 13.83pc and 100pc.

District Kasur is said to be the region where 100pc decline was reported.

In Sindh, six out of 11 districts have witnessed decline in production; the f all ranges between 1.45pc and 15.76pc. The districts are: Hyderabad, Mirpur Khas, Sanghar, Jamshoro, Badin and Ghotki.