Cloth exports declines by 10.69 percent in 10 months-Texglobe

FAISALABAD (May 21 2010): Unabated export of cotton yarn has shed negative impact on value added exports as the cloth exports have declined by 10.69 percent in 10 months period of July to April of current fiscal. Khurram Mukhtar, Chairman Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) and vice chairman Sohail Pasha talking to newsmen here on Thursday said that cloth export sector was a major forex earning sector to the tune of two billion dollar plus per year.

But due to unrestrained export of yarn, the cloth exports have declined by 175 million dollars. Quoting figures, he said that export of cloth in ten-month period (July-April) in 2008-09 were 1641 million dollars which in same period of 2009-10 have come down 1465 million dollars.

Similarly, the export of cloth in April 2010 was down by 550 million dollars from 1624 million dollars in March 2010 to 1619 million dollars in April 2010. This negative trend in cloth export is due to mainly to free export of cotton yarn from the country, he contended.

The situation has further aggravated due to unbridled export of cotton from the country, he said. Elaborating his argument he said, the export of raw cotton from the country has increased by 140 percent in July-April ten-month period of current fiscal against the same period of last year and there has been an increase of 103 percent in export of yarn other than cotton yarn. These exports of essential raw material items for the domestic industry have spiralled manifold and the value added textile industry is unable to manufacture and export at exorbitantly high cost.

Criticising the export of one dollar per kg earning forex by spinning sector against eight dollars per Kg earning by value added textile sector, Khurram Mukhtar said, huge loss of precious foreign exchange to the country. They emphasised the importance of saving the 18 million workers from unemployment and wage earners from joblessness in case the value-added sector of the country was forced to close down. They also questioned the wisdom of exporting one dollar value yarn at the cost of value added finished goods which fetched 8 dollars for the same quantity of yarn.

Sohail Pasha added that value added textile sector was the most labour intensive textile sector employing more than 18 million workforce and also large number of ancillary sector. They demanded immediate cognisance of this serious matter by the government failing which the textile industry as well as textile exports would further decline.