Cotton prices in the local and international markets reached all time level trading due to rising demand and poor supply. After oil and gold, the prices of cotton are also consistently increasing in the world market, which is also affecting the domestic prices of the commodity.

Current year has seen a worldwide shortfall in cotton production while demand is increasing. Therefore, its price on the international front is also soaring to about one dollar per pound. The cotton price in the US cotton market has gone up by 4 cents to new peak of 101 cents per pound from 97 cents per pound, said Ghulam Rabbani, a trader.

He said the gap between supply and demand has reached around 9 million bales this year and Pakistan is one of the countries, which is facing cotton shortfall due to the low production. International cotton prices and rising demand of raw cotton pushed its prices up by Rs 100 per maund on March 20 to Rs 3600 per maund from Rs 3500 per maund.

During the current year, the country was already facing a shortfall of some 3 million cotton bales, which has widened to around 4 million bales after failure to achieve the production target. He said that current year local cotton production would be about 11.6 million bales against the demand of 15.5 million bales. Therefore, the millers and traders are compelled to import cotton to meet the demand.

He said that due to the rising demand the import of cotton is also depicting an increased of 143% to 726.639 million dollar during the first seven months of the current fiscal 2008. The rising cotton prices on international and domestic front would also hit the textile sector, having 65% export share.