Washington DC September 8 2022: Pakistan production forecast for cotton is lowered 19.4 percent to 5 million bales due to floods says FAS of US in its report.
The 2022/23 harvested area estimate is reduced significantly due to the recent flooding in key production areas of Sindh and southern Punjab. As a result, the 2022/23 production forecast is lowered 19.4 percent to 5 million bales. To replace the expected decline in domestic output, the 2022/23 import forecast is increased to 5.8 million bales.
More than 1,300 people have so far died, with 81 out of 160 districts in the country directly affected by the floods, leaving at least 33 million people homeless, figures which are expected to rise in the coming days.
But beyond the human losses, the country’s economic managers have the most challenging task ahead as floods ravaged the country’s road and communication network, damaged an incalculable number of houses, and destroyed millions of hectares of crops.
The agriculture sector makes up nearly a fourth of Pakistan’s gross domestic product at 22.7 percent. Its massive destruction – including that of the cotton crop, a key source of revenue for the country – comes at a time when Pakistan has been struggling with fast-shrinking foreign exchange reserves and when it is already reeling under severe inflation, which touched 27.3 percent in August, a five-decade high.
As per a UN Food and Agriculture Organization August 29 report, almost 80 percent of crops in Sindh, which produces roughly 30 percent of Pakistan’s total cotton output, were destroyed.
