By SKM
December 29, 2025
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s cotton and textile sectors are facing growing uncertainty as the prolonged closure of the historic Karachi Cotton Exchange (KCE) continues to disrupt cotton trading, triggering alarm across the industry.
The shutdown has crippled the operations of the Karachi Cotton Association (KCA), particularly its issuance of the Daily Spot Rate — the benchmark price used nationwide by textile mills, banks, and insurance companies for cotton transactions. Industry players warn that without this reference rate, price discovery has become opaque and unreliable.
The issue has been formally taken up by the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA). In a letter dated December 27, APTMA Chairman Kamran Arshad urged Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Rana Tanveer Hussain to intervene immediately and restore normal functioning at the exchange.
Traders say the sealed building has effectively paralysed a key marketplace, halting routine trading activity and affecting hundreds of brokers, dealers, and support staff whose livelihoods depend on daily cotton transactions. The disruption comes at a particularly sensitive time, as the textile sector struggles with rising input costs, volatile cotton output, and shrinking profit margins.
Established in 1940, the Karachi Cotton Exchange has long served as the nerve centre of Pakistan’s cotton trade. Stakeholders caution that its continued closure is already inflicting financial losses on both cotton traders and textile manufacturers, sectors that are critical to employment and export earnings.
Industry representatives warn that prolonged uncertainty could also dent confidence among international buyers, further pressuring an industry already navigating economic headwinds.
Calling for urgent action, textile bodies have appealed to authorities to reopen the Cotton Exchange without delay, stressing that restoring transparent price discovery and uninterrupted trading is essential to stabilising Pakistan’s cotton market and safeguarding the country’s largest export-oriented industry.
