April 23, 2006	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 24, 1427

WHILE Sindh’s annual share in the country’s cotton economy fluctuates between 20 and 25 per cent depending on the size of crop, its contribution to value-addition in exports and employment opportunities is enormous.

The province’s share in GDP is also steadily increasing each year as its value-added textiles and export-oriented farm products, notably rice, have made deeper in-roads in the world markets, adding significantly to the foreign exchange earnings.

According to sources in the spinning sector, the textile industry is a major source of creating job opportunities despite increased automation. It currently employs about 0.2 million people both in skilled and unskilled positions in addition to computer literates and MBAs.

The textile industry also employs a large number of rural women as cotton pickers during the picking season that starts in early September and continues till the end of February. According to ginners, over a million women are engaged in this seasonal profession, well-known as pickers of the contamination-free cotton maintaining quality standards set by the local cotton monitoring institutions. Relevant institutions also arrange short courses for women before the picking season and they adhere to the general guidelines set for them to keep the ‘phutti’ clean and dry.

The annual cotton production of Sindh last year was the highest at three million bales, valued at Rs40 billion but during the current season it fell to 2.5 million bales owing to the damage caused by mid-season rain to the crop in major growing areas.

Out of a total annual textile exports of around $10bn, Sindh’s textile and ancillary industry’s contribution is billed around $4 billion and its share is progressively increasing as producers have opted for new technologies and cost-effective measures.

On the export front, private sector exporters are playing an important role as a bulk of the exports to over four dozen countries is made by Karachi-based exporters.

It caters to the entire annual consumption requirements of the local textile sector, ancillary industry and other end-product users including, those who add value to the raw cotton, after having passed through various processes.

The SITE industrial estate leads as a pioneering industrial zone for the textile sector followed by industrial estates in Landhi, Dhabeji and Nooriabad, which have in their fold well over 100 units, both composite and spinning.

Most of them are fed by the local cotton, which has a large variety choice for the textile industry — a judicious combination of medium staple and low staple length — meant to produce low and higher counts of cotton yarn.

While upper Sindh K-68 sawgin variety is considered amongst the finest varieties, those from lower and central Sindh’s cotton belt are medium-staple length varieties well-suited to exports as they have a ready world market.