Despite reports of shortfall in cotton crop in the country, exporters are engaged in carrying on export bargains, due to which the rates of cotton have reached the record level of Rs 7600 per maund and the speculators and hoarders are also adding fuel to the fire.
Talking to newsmen, the chairman of Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PHMA), North Zone, Salamat Ali, said that the increase in the rates of cotton and its hoarding is badly affecting the yarn markets in the country, due to which the prices of polyester and cotton yarn are skyrocketing.
He said that ignoring the requirements of the domestic textile industry, and export of cotton and yarn is a dangerous game, due to which not only the industrial investment in the country has come to a halt, but the foreign investment during the first quarter of current fiscal year had also decreased to the tune of 28 percent.
He said as a result of the flood, unemployment has dangerously increased and the textile industry has been facing the worst crisis due to the non-stop increase in the cost of production. Unscheduled load shedding of gas and electricity, increase in the energy tariff and day by day increases in the bank mark-up has made the situation very alarming, he added.
He demanded that the government should evolve a strategy to provide protection to the Value-added textile sector, which is busy and might provide jobs opportunities to millions of people and boost exports for earning foreign exchange. He demanded that speculation and hoarding should be eliminated in the best interests of the country.
He also demanded that the government should investigate and flush out the speculators and hoarders of cotton and cotton yarn who are creating artificial shortage of this basic raw material and blood line of the value-added textile export sector and penalise them in the best interests of the country's economy.
He proposed that the government should design such a mechanism that cotton yarn is made available to the starving value-added textile export sector instead of traders and hoarders. He declared that if the government is unable to trace such speculators and hoarders, they were prepared to assist the government in pointing them out.