Karachi:Pakistan has suspended cotton imports from its top supplier, India, saying shipments failed to fulfil phyto-sanitary certification, threatening the $822 million-a-year trade, government and industry officials told Reuters.
\nTraders say rising hostility between the neighbours might have prompted Pakistan to restrict imports.
\nThe decision will help other cotton suppliers such as Brazil and the United States to increase exports to Pakistan.
\n\u201cWe had received some complaints regarding insects, pests, in cotton consignments imported from India, so we have sent samples for tests,\u201d Imran Shami, director general of Pakistan’s Plant Protection Department (DPP), told Reuters on Wednesday.
\n\u201cIf results show non-compliance of phyto-sanitary requirements, we would have to stop the imports from India.\u201d
\nPakistan had put on hold cotton consignments from India, he said, adding that if tests confirmed the presence of pests, \u201cthese consignments will go back or would have to be destroyed\u201d, he said.
\nIn 2015-16, Pakistan surpassed Bangladesh to become India’s biggest cotton buyer, accounting for 40 per cent of exports.
\n\u201cOfficially there is nothing on the record, but on the ground, there is an unannounced ban on cotton imports from India,\u201d said Ihsan ul Haq, chairman of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Forum.
\nIndian exporters have signed contracts to export 350,000 bales to Pakistan since the start of the marketing year on Oct1 and out of that nearly 300,000 bales for shipments in December and January could get stuck, three exporters said.
\n\u201cOut of the contracted quantity, a very small amount has been dispatched so far as the season has just started,\u201d Cotton Association of India President Dhiren Sheth told Reuters.
\nSupplies from the new season crop usually start rising from November in India.
\nBut this year, supplies are negligible after the Indian government’s move to ban high-value currency notes prompted farmers to postpone sales.
\n\u201cBuyers and sellers are not cancelling contracts. They are waiting for some positive response from the government,\u201d said Chirag Patel, chief executive officer of Indian exporter Jaydeep Cotton Fibers.
\nThe nuclear-armed rivals have seen tension increase in the past few months over Kashmir.
\nLast year, Pakistan bought 2.7 million bales from India and supported Indian cotton prices at a time when China was cutting imports, traders said.
\n\u201cIt will be big problem for us if Pakistan stops buying. Other countries could not absorb the entire surplus,\u201d said an exporter based in the western state of Gujarat.
\nAlong with Pakistan, India mostly exports cotton to Bangladesh, China, Vietnam and Indonesia.
\nPakistan, the world’s third-largest cotton consumer, has not stopped imports from other countries, said Shami of the DPP.
\nBut importers say buying the fibre from other suppliers like the United States, Brazil and West Africa will prove costlier and time consuming.
\n\u201cFrom India, imports come across within 10 days and sometimes within a week consignments used to cross the Wagah border,\u201d said Haq.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Karachi:Pakistan has suspended cotton imports from its top supplier, India, saying shipments failed to fulfil phyto-sanitary certification, threatening the $822 million-a-year trade, government and industry officials told Reuters. Traders say rising hostility between the neighbours might have prompted Pakistan to restrict imports. The decision will help other cotton suppliers such as Brazil and the United […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n