July-February bed wear export fall by $129.782 million

Violence, energy shortage and erratic government policies have pulled down the country's bed-wear export by $129.782 million or 10 percent in July-February period of 2012 compared to $1.317 billion in the same period of 2011, exporters said on Friday.
"Foreign buyers are not willing to visit Pakistan ever-since the country began to undergo a series of huge violent incidents. They now prefer placing orders with India, Bangladesh and Vietnam," exporters said. In terms of value, the country's bed wear export reached $1.187 billion during July-February period of the current fiscal year as compared to $1.317 billion during the same period of last fiscal year, depicting a decline of $129.782 million or 10 percent, according to official figures.
Pakistan's bed wear export, in terms of volume, fell some 19.32 percent or 39,852 tons to 166,469 tons during July-February 2012 period as compared to the export of these items of 206,321 tons, the statistics say. The country's bed wear export in February 2012 fell by $30.571 million or 20 percent to $124.897 million as compared to $155.468 million during the same period last fiscal year.
In terms of volume, the county's bed wear export slid to 18,051 tons in February 2012 as compared to 22,182 tons in February 2011, showing a fall of 19 percent or 4,131 tons, the official figures indicated. Talking to Business Recorder, All Pakistan Bed Wear Exporters Association Chairman Shabbir Ahmed held the government's weak policies behind Pakistan's stagnant economy and regression in exports, particularly in textiles.
"Trade Development Authority of Pakistan [TDAP] is not responding to the problems of textile exporters, as foreign buyers started increasing their visits to India, Bangladesh and Vietnam to book home textile consignments, ignoring Pakistan completely," he said. He said load shedding, fuel price hike, gas shortage, poor law and order and indifferent government policies equally contributed to decline in bed-wear export by $129.782 million or 10 percent in July-February period and $30.571 million or 20 percent million in February 2012.
He said foreign buyers were worried because of the security concerns, therefore, they preferred to place orders with other regional countries. He said global buyers were also concerned about the soaring power and gas shortage fearing delays in production and subsequently in the shipment to their markets in time.