High production cost may hamper $1 billion textile garment export

With the passage of every single day, the concerns of textile garment manufacturers-cum-exporters are increasing over the likely divergence of about one billion dollars foreign orders for Christmas season of this year mainly because of stiff attitude of foreign buyers.
The exporters said on Tuesday that unfortunately the country has lost its reliability in terms of timely shipments of foreign consignments. "Foreign buyers now do not rely on supply side of their booked consignments, while prior to Christmas season they have already laid down their strict conditions in this regard," they added.
The country's export of value-added textile products during Christmas season every year to Europe and US stands at about one billion dollars, they said, adding that in the current year foreign buyers are insisting on timely shipment of consignments from Pakistan.
They said that buyers cannot afford to lose a single penny during the Christmas season therefore their demands are getting stiff. While, the soaring cost of production is hampering the country's export process. Petrol prices are going up, while rise in the gas and electricity tariffs are in the offing, which could derail the production process by making the products costlier, they said.
"We cannot control price hike of garment products, while the foreign buyers are demanding that prices of these products should be negotiated on a longer period basis. Similarly, they want timely dispatches of consignments - particularly after December 27 violence which halted the export and import process," they elaborated.
Since the abolition of quota regime in the European market, the value-added textile sector has been caught by crisis continuing till date. They expressed fears and demanded of the government to constitute a policy forthwith.
They maintained that the government should also form committees on emergency basis to sort out the confronting problems of every sector. Cotton prices are still up in the local market, they said. About the minimum wage of Rs 6,000, they said that it is not workable across the board and it will put severe negative impact on industrial output.