Knitwear and hosiery exports have increased by 12.3% year-on-year just in the first four months of the current fiscal year despite the current global economic disruption that had caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The textile sub-sector has earned the highest amount of foreign exchange that worth $1.183 billion in the country compared to earnings of $1.053 billion for the previous year, same four-month period.
The statistics that are compiled by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) show that the exports for readymade or woven garments were 25% more, and 32% more than the exports of bed wear whereas 318% more than the exports of towels.
However, the knitwear garment sector is maintaining the top position in the textile group and also in the other groups remarked by, Riaz Ahmed Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers and Exporters Association Central Chairman. Tariq Munir, the PHMA South Zone Chairman, appreciated the government for taking the necessary measures about enhancing exports by prioritizing the export sectors and also introducing a separate gas and electricity tariffs that are for the five major significant export-oriented industries.
Mr Farrukh Iqbal, the PHMA North Zone Chairman also emphasized that if the government of Pakistan will consider proposals of knitwear sector and also resolved almost all its problems by ensuring the smooth availability of all basic raw materials like cotton yarn and other uninterrupted supply of utilities, then this sector could further enhance the exports annually by approximately up to 30-50%.
Spokesperson Ahmed said that the Global exports of knitwear in 2019 stood at a value of $237 billion as per the trade statistics shown by Trade Map and Pakistan’s knitwear exports came at $2.79 billion along with a share of 1.17%.
According to a report of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA), the chairman of the south zone called it as an alarming situation that Pakistan’s cotton production had plunged just from 6.85 million bales to up to 4.02 million bales and a decrease of 41.27% of this season.
The central chairman also lauded the government, particularly the (FBR) Federal Board of Revenue for improvement in the refund processing just by shifting from the FASTER to even FASTER Plus system that was a processing refund that claims efficiently within 42 to 72 hours without any human involvement.
As per Mr Iqbal, this shortfall will soon have a dreadful effect on the textile exports, and especially those of the knitwear (hosiery) sector that is labour intensive and also provides approximately 40% of the urban employment that is particularly to the female workforce. This is the reason that the government should allow the duty-free import of the cotton yarn as it has already permitted the duty-free import of cotton.
