January 30, 2003	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 26,1423

LAHORE, Jan 29: The average unit price of carpets exported from Pakistan has been on the decline for the last 14 years as it fell by 31.85 per cent to $58.12 per square meter (sqm) last year from $85.24 sqm in 1987-88.

A spokesman for the Pakistan Carpets Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PCMEA) told Dawn on Wednesday that the unit price was expected to further come down by 5 to 10 per cent at the end of the current year. “It’s likely to come down to $56 sqm or so,” the spokesman said.

As a result of this, the share of carpet exports in the total exports from Pakistan also dropped to 2.7 per cent last fiscal from 5.7 per cent in 1987-88.

On the other hand, the quantity exported from the country rose to 3.875 million sqm in the fiscal 2001-02 from 2.954 million sqm in 1987-88.

“The carpet exports from Pakistan have seen many ups and downs in 14 years,” said PCMEA officials. “We exported carpets to the tune of $251.803 million in 1987-88 that fell to their all time low of $148.791 million in 1993-94. Although we were able to push them up to $195.909 million in the fiscal year 1996-97, they stagnated at about $200 million for a couple of years before they took a quantum leap to $265 million in 1999-00,” assert the PCMEA officials.