LAHORE, Feb 9: As indicated by the drastic fall in the import of the most expensive American Pima cotton, Pakistan’s exports of high-end bedwear and fabric made from the premier long staple fibre have plummeted stridently during the last one-and-a-half years.

The customers of high-end textile products do not want anything with “Made in Pakistan” imprinted on its label due to poor country perception.

Pakistan, which became the single largest consumer of Pima cotton used to make high-end bedwear around the world with the imports of 182,600 bales in FY05, saw the consumption of this fibre drop 70 per cent to 55,900 bales in FY06. During the current fiscal year, Pima cotton imports into Pakistan stand at 20,000 bales so far, which is only 11 per cent of the quantity imported during FY05.

“The consumption of Pima cotton has declined sharply because the customers of the high-end bedwear and fabric have primarily shifted to China (which imported 128,000 bales of Pima in CY2005 and 246,000 bales in CY2006) and in other cases to India (which imported 75,000 bales in CY05 and 76,000 bales in CY06) because of the poor country image,” bedwear exporters say.

“We do not export yarn made from Pima cotton. It is used locally to make bedsheets and fabrics, which is totally exported. Since the export of Pima products from Pakistan has declined sharply, we have stopped importing this fibre any more,” a spinner said.

“There are different factors responsible for the drastic reduction in the consumption of Pima cotton in Pakistan. But our tarnished country perception in the foreign markets is the single most important reason for the decline in the use of Pima,” a textile exporter of the beadsheets, who was in Germany to participate in a textile fair last month, told Dawn on Friday.

The Pima products are highly value added and most expensive, and are imported only by high-end American brands. In the recent years, the high-end customers’ preference for Pakistan as a source of Pima products has decreased, and we have been told in so many words that they do not want anything that has name of Pakistan imprinted on the labels”.

“Besides Pakistan’s poor country image, the 30-40 per cent increase in the price of Pima cotton has also discouraged Pakistan’s spinners and bedwear producers from using this fibre for making yarn or bedsheets,” Kashif Shakoor, a director of Gulistan Textile Mill, told Dawn.

He said the consumption of Pima in Pakistan peaked in FY05 when it was available at a cheaper rate. “But its use began to decline when its price started going up,” he said.

He said the Pakistani manufacturers of products made from Pima had switched over to other less expensive varieties of long staple cotton and were used to make products for lower end brands. “But the products of these fibres fetch far less value (in terms of dollars) if compared to Pima products,” he said.

A senior Aptma official, who asked not to be named, claimed that the consumption of Pima cotton in Pakistan had come down because of rising cost of doing business as a consequence of increased interest rates and utility prices and other factors. But Kashif does not agree with this suggestion.

“The increasing cost of doing business has definitely affected Pima consumption, but it is not a major factor because it has affected all the textile products, and their exports. Cotton (whether Pima or any other variety) forms 70 per cent of our total cost of production. Thus, if the price of our raw materials increases 30-40 per cent it surely affects the consumers of Pima cotton more than those who use cheaper fibres or even the increase in cost of doing business,” he elaborated.

Pakistan’s bedwear exports, it may be added, fell by 3.7 per cent in CY2006 to 337,423 tons from 350,393 tons in CY2005, which makes some textile exporters to also link reduction in the consumption of Pima cotton to the fall in bedwear exports.

But Kashif said it was very difficult to assess the exact impact of the decreased consumption of Pima cotton on the country’s declining bedwear exports. “It, however, must have had its share in the reduction of bedwear export from Pakistan.”