The export of leather garments has decreased from 369.3 million dollars to 306.7 million dollars during last two financial years due to smuggling of animals to neighbouring countries. Minister of State for Commerce Abbas Ahmed Afridi Wednesday told the National Assembly during question hour that the leather industry is being affected due to smuggling of animals to other countries.
He said that the demand of leather garments from foreign countries is sustained but it could not be met due to shortage of leather. He said that the government is taking a lot of steps to improve leather garment industry. He said that total amount of Rs 855 million has been released from 1992-93 to 2011-12 to the leather sector from Export Development Fund of the Ministry of Commerce.
In another reply, the Minister said that the export of citrus fruit (Kinno) to Sri Lanka has increased 70 per cent last year. He said that Ministry of Commerce does not fix commodity-wise export target. However, he said that overall export target for the country is fixed on annual basis. He said that export performance of Kinno during the current year has been quite satisfactory. He said that Kinno exports have increased to US $162.6 million in 2011-12 (July-March) as compared to US $95.8 million during the corresponding period last year thereby showing an increase of about 70 per cent.
In written reply to a question, Minister for Commerce Makhdoom Amin Fahim said that during 2010-11 Pakistan's exports to Saudi Arabia were of 427.5 million dollars while our imports for the same period were of 4546.6 million dollars. He said that due to heavy import and high prices of Petroleum and petroleum products the trade balance is in favour of Saudi Arabia. He said that major export items to Saudi Arabia are meat and meat preparations, rice (all sorts), fruits and fruit preparations, spices, cotton & synthetic fabrics and made up articles of textiles.
He said that the trade between Pakistan and Iran is showing an inconsistent pattern. He said they peaked to 1.32 billion dollars in 2008-2009 but subsequently declined to 1.16 billion dollars in 2009-2010 and further to 734.94 Million dollars in 2010-11. He added that Pakistan's exports have also been inconsistent. They peaked to 399.61 million dollars in 2008-09 but declined to 207.18 dollars to 161.941 million dollars in 2010-11. The major cause of decline in Pakistan's exports is decrease in export of rice to Iran, he said.
The Minister said that the there was 1.633 billion dollars export of Pakistan to Afghanistan and 138.1 million dollars import during 2011-2012 (July- March). He said that Afghanistan is the 4th largest market for exports from Pakistan. Bilateral trade between the two countries has tremendously increased during the last few years. He said that exports to Afghanistan are wide ranging and cover from food items to light engineering products.