Page 5 - February-March 2021
P. 5

05



                                           Pakistan's exports surpassed $2.1 billion in

                                           January 2021; Cotton production down,
                                           Government is planting cannabis crops


             Editor-in-Chief               According to the report of East    abolish the existing five percent
             Yousaf Fareed                 Asian economies drive global trade   customs duty on import of cotton
                                           recovery, Pakistan's exports of    yarn below 40 single count. Cotton
             Editor                        textile products increased 7.8% in   yarn prices surged 40 percent, but
             Hassan Saeed                  dollar terms in the first seven    even at that exorbitant rate it was
                                           months of FY21 over the same       unavailable on the local market.
             Sub-Editor                    period of the previous year. Exports   The situation has also compelled
             Dr Sharjeel Abid              of knitwear, bed wear, and towels   the exporters not to take new
             Noor Amjad                    grew by more than 16%.             orders and for that reason such
             Dr Shagufta Riaz              Interestingly, the exports of cotton   export orders meant for Pakistan
                                           cloth declined 7.7%. Exports of    shall be diverted to other regional
             Advisory Board:               leather manufactures showed a      countries. The dollar had
             Dr. Tanveer Hussain           growth of 6.4%, driven by exports   depreciated against the rupee by
             Dr. Muhammad Tausif           of leather gloves. On the other    seven percent, which was also a
                                           hand, textile machinery imports    matter of concern for the exporters
             Marketing Manager             increased by 28.2%, while office   as the situation might lead to a
             Memoona Karim                 machinery rose by 42.4%.           liquidity crunch.
             Abdul Haseeb                  Furthermore, there is an increase in
                                           imports of raw cotton and synthetic   The availability of the cotton yarn in
             Layouts                       fiber, indicating an increase in the   the local market is already very low
             Faizan Khan                   textile sector activity.           which poses as a huge challenge
                                                                              for the apparel sector. In these
             Marketing Incharge            The government is also moving in   circumstances, a 35.86 recorded
             Tanveer Ahmed                 the right direction. The State Bank   increase in the cotton yarn export
                                           of Pakistan (SBP) facilitates      is making a layer of panic go
             Address                       startups, fintech, and exports in the   through the apparel makers. These
             C-302, City Towers            right direction. Furthermore, there   apparel makers are already
             Main Boulevard, Gulberg II    is a need to upgrade machinery     seeking a ban on cotton yarn
             Lahore-Pakistan               and equipment to ensure better     export as this premium raw
                                           competitiveness of domestic        material should be utilized by
             Phone: + 92 42 35 788 700     producers.                         Pakistan to manufacture high value
             Fax:   + 92 42 35 788 700                                        added products like garments
                                           The value added products of        which will in turn in earning foreign
             Email: info@textalks.com      knitwear, bedwear, towel and       exchange.
             Skype: textalks               readymade garments have
                                           witnessed a decline of 26.14, 7.35,   In an effort to revive cotton
             www.textalks.com              11.36 and 0.42 percent             production, the government has
                                           respectively in February 2021      taken a new route which is
                                           compared to January 2021. The      cannabis production. Compared to
                                           rising volume of export of cotton   cotton, cannabis can produce
                                           yarn had deteriorated apparel      crops three times the size of cotton
                                           sector’s growth as the country     per acre and has a faster
                                           continued to face energy shortage.  growing-time averaging at 90 to
                                                                              100 days as compared to 150 to
                                           The government should also         180 days for cotton.




                                                                                    February/March 2021
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