Pakistan cotton arrival growth slows to 5%, raising price concerns

Mettis Global reported that the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) put arrivals at ginning plants at 3.208m bales by September 30. Year-on-year growth slid to 5% at the close of September, having been 27% roughly a month earlier. Punjab logged 1.215m bales, up 7%, while Sindh recorded 1.993m bales, a rise of around 4%.

Ehsan-ul-Haq of the Cotton Ginners Forum blamed above-normal temperatures for opening cotton bolls early and reducing expected per-acre yields. Earlier, favourable weather had raised hopes of a 10% to 15% gain in output compared with last year. Between September 16 and 30, arrivals reached about 820,000 bales, well below the roughly 1.1m bales ginners had expected.

Textile mills bought 2.727m bales from ginners through September, exporters took 96,600 bales, and roughly 385,000 bales remained unsold. Globally, the International Cotton Advisory Committee puts 2026-27 output at 25.94m metric tons, a 3.8% fall from 26.98m tons in 2025-26. Undocumented trading, put at 1.5m to 2m bales a year, is linked by Ehsan-ul-Haq to high taxation, and stricter FBR digital invoicing could bring more of it into the documented economy.