ISLAMABAD - The country’s textile exports had registered negative growth of 7.50 per cent during first eight months (July-February) of ongoing fiscal year 2011-12 against the same period last year owing to ongoing power crisis and reduced textile prices in international market.
According to figures released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Wednesday, country exported textile commodities worth $7.989 billion in July-February period of 2011-12 against $8.626 billion of July-February previous fiscal year 2010-11. The textile’s exports had gone down by 7.50 per cent in one-year period.
Meanwhile, textile’s exports had also gone down by 12.03 per cent during the month of February 2012 against the same period last year. Country exported textile commodities worth of $1.046 billion in February 2012 against $ 1.189 billion of February 2011.
It merits mentioning here that textile sector is facing worse kind of loadshedding from last few years. Officials of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) believed that textile exports would reduce by some $5 billion during the ongoing financial year that will result in achieving $11 billion exports against the target of $16 billion due to prevailing energy crisis. The reduction in textile exports would affect overall country’s exports as government is unlikely to achieve exports level ($24 billion). According to figures released by PBS, the product-wise details showed that raw cotton exports has increased by 23.68 per cent during first eight months of current financial year, cotton yarn exports had decreased by 24.94 per cent, cotton cloth exports went down by 0.73 per cent, cotton carded exports declined by 61.19 per cent, yarn exports up by 8.03 per cent, knitwear export declined by 10.81 per cent, bed wear, 9.85 per cent, towels, 5.23 per cent, tents export enhanced by 155.98 per cent, readymade garments, 1.48 per cent, art silk and synthetic textile exports decreased by 8.90 per cent, made up articles export reduced by 8.98 per cent and other textile materials exports increased by 3.36 per cent in July-February period of 2011-12 against the July-February 2010-11 period, said the PBS data.
Meanwhile, the figures revealed that the country’s food export also registered an increase of 0.59 per cent in July-February period of the year 2011-12. The break up of food group exports revealed that rice exports went down by 6.39 per cent in the period under review, fish exports increased by 14.69 per cent, fruits exports surged by 15.02 per cent, tobacco exports enhanced by 56.47 per cent,, vegetables exports reduced by 36.69 per cent, pulses, wheat, 53.22 per cent, spices exports decreased by 1.49 per cent, oil seeds export 59.84 per cent, meat 16.46 per cent and all other food items export enhanced by 45.80 per cent in the period under review.
Meanwhile, other manufactures group also enhance by 23.25 per cent. In this group, exports carpets, rugs and mats went down by 3.26 per cent and sports goods exports increased by 2.32 per cent during the period under reviewed. Similarly, the engineering goods exports has enhanced by over 40.66 per cent, surgical goods and medical instruments exports also went up by 21.44 per cent in July-February period of the current fiscal year against the same period last year.