Ginners suspend raw cotton buying

Ginners have decided to suspend buying raw cotton from farmers across the country after district commissioners in the cotton belt, both in Sindh and Punjab, directed them to pay the growers not less than Rs8,500 per maund. Provincial governments of Sindh and Punjab through the district administrations had asked the ginning factories to pay at least Rs8,500 per maund, the minimum support price fixed by the federal government, to the cotton growers or face closure of their mills. Manzoor Wassan, the adviser to the Sindh chief minister on agriculture, was quoted as saying that the action was initiated after receiving complaints from growers in Sanghar, Mirpur Khas, Nawabshah, Khairpur and other districts that they were being paid only Rs6,500 against the official price of Rs8,500 per maund. Similar reports were received from Vehari, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalnagar and other cotton-growing districts in Punjab.