Continued political turmoil and high cost of production have pulled down the dwindling textile exports by 10 percent during October, exporters said on Thursday. They said besides political crisis in the country, the soaring prices of cotton and cotton yarns had also put a negative impact on the cost of products, they said.
With over 65 percent share in the country's exports, textile exports had dipped by 9.28 percent to 836.855 million dollars during the October 2007, as against 922.416 million dollars during September 2007, they said.
On monthly basis, the said the textile exports during October as compared to the same period of the last fiscal had increased by 2.74 percent, which stood at 814.552 million dollars. Overall textile exports during the first four months of current fiscal year also showed poor performance, as during the July-October exports witnessed a growth of one percent as against the target of over seven percent.
During July-October, the country's textile exports amounted to 3.649 billion dollars as compared to 3.612 million dollars during the same period of last fiscal, showing a slight jump of 37 million dollars during the first four months.
"We were expecting that the country's textile exports would decline in the January 2007, but it has gone down in October 2007, which is a matter of concern," exporters said. They said that due to political crisis and uncertainty in the country, foreign buyers were reluctant to visit Pakistan.
"Rising prices of raw material, including raw cotton, is another factor behind the poor performance of textile sector," they said. They said that during October, export of five textile products, including raw cotton, knitwear, towels, readymade garments, tents, canvas and tarpaulin had declined, while the exports of cotton yarn, cotton cloth, bedwear, art, Silk, and synthetic textile had gone up.
As compared to major competitors China, India and Bangladesh where textile products were available at low prices, they said Pakistan had badly suffered due to inefficient and aggressive marketing strategy in the world market. However, exporters said they were still confident that during current month and in December exports would go up due to Christmas and new year celebrations.