ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: Textile and clothing exports witnessed a robust growth of 25.79 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal year over the corresponding period last year on the back of a double-digit growth in exports of value-added products due to rising demand in international market.
As a result, the share of textile and clothing sector rose to over 57 per cent during the period under review from 54 per cent last year reflecting not only heavy reliance on one sector for export proceeds but also lack of interest of the present government in diversification of export basket.
In absolute term, the export of textile and clothing reached to $6.284 billion in July-Dec period of this fiscal from $4.995 billion during the same period last year, suggested data compiled by federal bureau of statistics issued here on Wednesday.
The growth accrued mainly due to substantial growth in exports of garments and knitwear, two leading value-added sectors, on the back of special support and subsidies dolled out to the sector for increasing market share in international trade.
Alone in the month of December, the textile and clothing sector witnessed 43 per cent growth due to rising demand because of Christmas shopping in United States and European markets.
A former secretary of commerce and trade group Ashraf Khan told Dawn the increase in exports of textile and clothing sector was only reflection of the increase in cotton prices.
Mr Khan said the unit price of textile and clothing products in Pakistan was far less in comparison to countries in the region, especially China, Bangladesh, and India, which indicates that the government subsidies were being passed on to the foreign importers.
The import of textile machinery witnessed a growth of 110 per cent during the first half this year might be due to increase in of import machinery for the spinning industry, Mr Khan said.
Contrary to growth in textile and clothing, the exports of traditional products or non-textile products were up by 14.32 per cent to $4.692 billion during the July-Dec against $4.104 billion over last year.
The growth in non-textile products was driven by a substantial increase in exports of rice, which recorded a growth of eight per cent, followed by an increase of 55 per cent in exports of meat products, 35 per cent in fish products.
The product-wise details showed that exports of readymade garments increased by 34.99 per cent and knitwear by 24.07 per cent during July-Dec over last year. The export of bedwear also witnessed a growth of 16 per cent during the period under review.
Export of raw cotton witnessed a growth of 13.91 per cent during the period under review despite the fact that this year the country was facing a shortfall of over 2 million bales due to floods in August last.
At the same time, export of cotton yarn was up by 26.49 per cent in July-Dec indicating lesser availability of these products for the domestic value-added sector. And cotton cloth also witnessed a growth of 30.63 per cent during the period under review.