January 20, 2008	Sunday	Muharram 10, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 19: Textile ancillary industry has urged the government to impose ban on export of cotton to ease the rapidly rising yarn prices as it is causing damage to the viability of value-added textile goods on the world markets. Textile exports have already registered a steep fall during December 2007.

Short cotton crop has pushed prices above import parity at Rs3,300 per maund and this was resulting in price spiral as yarn prices have also started climbing, pushing up the cost of inputs of textile industry to an unprecedented level.

The industry had been complaining of high cost of production owing to frequent rise in utilities, such as power and gas tariffs, but soaring cotton prices have further deteriorated the situation, industry sources said.

Syed Usman Ali, chairman, Towel Manufacturers’ Association of Pakistan (TMA), apprehended that if soaring raw cotton and yarn prices were not controlled, the textile products would become uncompetitive and lose traditional markets to their rivals Bangladesh, India, China and Sri Lanka.

Currently, the industry is also confronting poor law and order situation due to which not only production hours are lost, but foreign buyers seem to be highly shaky about placing orders.

“My buyers before placing orders asked me to confirm if my unit is in a position for timely delivery of orders as they fears a total breakdown of law and order in Pakistan,” a leading home textile exporter who attended recently held Heimtextil fair at Frankfurt told Dawn.

Javed Bilwani, chairman, Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers Association (PHMA), said there was an urgent need for re-evaluating the current situation and the government had to ensure that the textile exports stay competitive to control rapidly widening trade imbalance.

In view of short cotton crop there seems to be no logic to export the produce, he said and urged the government to impose ban on export of raw cotton, otherwise, the industry would start closing down.