Textile Exports Up By 30 Percent To $9.8bn.

Pakistan’s textile exports surged by over 30 percent to $9.88 billion in July-March 2010/11 on the back of higher commodity prices.

According to the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) figures, released on Monday, textile exports in March, 2011 registered 44 percent growth to $1.25 billion over March last year.

Analysts attributed the rise in textile exports to higher commodities prices in international markets. They said that cotton prices increased phenomenally in the world, which helped the exporters to fetch better prices for their produces.

“The exports were increased in only value terms because the prices escalated on shortage of cotton globally,” said Dr Ayub Mehar, an analyst.

During current fiscal year, the cotton producing countries faced serious problems such as floods in Brazil and export ban on cotton by India, Mehar said, who is a former head of research at Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI).

He, however, said that continuation of the current pace of textile exports depends on the global cotton estimates for next year.

The flash floods early this fiscal year also lowered the cotton output estimates for current fiscal year to 11.7 million bales from 14 million bales, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in a recent report.

Despite the fall in cotton output in the country, export of the raw material climbed up 22.41 percent to $236 million from 192.9 million. However, this export is mainly due to higher prices in the international market because the exported quantity fell by 34 percent.

Analysts also attributed the rise in exports to higher demand of Pakistan’s finished and semi-finished products in the EU and US economies after facing recession period in last two years.

Textile exports held a share of around 55 percent in the country’s total exports of $17.79 billion during July-March 2010/2011. The central bank in its report said that the current trend of textile exports would help the country to have record exports in current fiscal year.

The major components that helped the textile exports grow significantly include cotton yarn, cotton cloth, knitwear, bed wear and readymade garments.

The export of cotton yarn and cotton cloth went up by 37.21 percent and 28.6 percent to $1.5 billion and $1.7 billion from previous figures of $1.1 billion and $1.32 billion.

Similarly, knitwear, bed wear and readymade garments posted exports growth of 32.7 percent, 22.28 percent and 37.75 percent, respectively.

Source : thenews.com.pk