Leading mills kept on the sidelines on cotton market on Saturday due to higher retas, dealers said. The official spot rate was unchanged at Rs 8700, they added. In ready session, about 7,000 bales of cotton changed hands between Rs 8500-8900, they said.

Rates of seed cotton per 40kg in Sindh were at Rs 3300-4200 and in the Punjab prices were at Rs 3600-4200, they said. In Balochistan, seed cotton prices were at Rs 4000-4600 and cotton prices were at Rs 8700-8900, they said.

In Sindh, Binola prices per maund were at Rs 1300-1500 and in Punjab rates were at Rs 1450-1600, they said and adding that polyester fibre was at Rs 187.

Market sources said that under the unsuitable circumstances, country may miss desired target for the current season. Untimely rains, attacks by Pink Bollworm, mealy bug and white fly cut down the size of production and damage quality, as well, they said.

The governments despite long slogans and arranging seminars and workshops, failed to provide timely and required facilities to the cotton growers, they said and adding that in 2010-11, country achieved about 15 million bales of cotton, why missing desired target every year?

Cotton, analyst, Naseem Usman said that the country would have to import some 4.5 million bales of cotton from different countries to meet demand. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Institute of Cotton Research and Technology (PICRT) is arranging seminars in Karachi and Islamabad on Monday to celebrate the World Cotton Day and will discuss core issues, related to cotton.

Adds Reuters: Cotton inched up on Friday, after reaching a three-week high in the last session, on concerns about weather in Texas, a major US growing state, while the market awaited the Sino-US trade talks and a federal crop report.

The most active cotton contract on ICE Futures US, the second-month December futures, was up 0.1 cent, or 0.2%, at 61.70 cents per lb as of 2:16 p.m. EDT (1816 GMT).

Total futures market volume fell by 21,873 to 17,070 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 907 to 235,494 contracts in the previous session. The following deals reported: 200 bales of cotton from Sakrand at Rs 8500, 1400 bales from Khairpur at Rs 8700, 1000 bales from Rohri at Rs 8700/8750, 1000 bales from Rajanpur at Rs 8850/8900, 400 bales from Fort Abbas at Rs 8850, 800 bales from Haroonabad at Rs 8850, 400 bales from Khanewal at Rs 8850, 800 bales from Dera Ghazi Khan at Rs 8850, 400 bales from Faqeerwali at Rs 8850, 200 bales from Donga Bonga at Rs 8850 and 400 bales from Vehari at Rs 8735, they said.