KARACHI, July 31: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry has strongly reacted over a report that Pakistan would export 50,000 short staple cotton bales in 2008-09.

In a statement on Thursday, FPCCI President Tanvir A Sheikh said that the country would earn only Rs1 billion through export of 50,000 cotton bales, but it could earn more than Rs6 billion by using this cotton to make intermediate textile product -- yarn and grey fabrics. These earnings could be increased to more than Rs20 billion by making finished textile products, he added.

Tanvir Sheikh mentioned that Pakistan’s annual production of cotton is about 11.5 million bales and requirement is 16 million bales, leaving a shortfall of over 4.5 million bales. Last year, about 1.6 million bales were imported from India, he said. The FPCCI chief demanded of the government to impose ban on cotton export otherwise textile industry would face severe problems. He said decreasing trend was observed in the textile sector due to raw cotton shortage.

Mr Sheikh said that if the ban on cotton export was not imposed the government would not be able to achieve export target of $22.1 billion in 2008-09. The permission to allow export was not at all in the interest of the country, as the local price of cotton, which used to be available at Rs2,700 to Rs3,000 per maund, had surged to Rs4,300 per maund, he added.