Bed linen pips rice and cotton exports

The bedroom is certainly where the heart is and its difficult not to lose ones heart over the range of crisp subtle bed linen. According to the data released by UN Comtrade--an extensive database of global commercial trade--"bed and other linen is still Pakistans top 2013 export, but rice and cotton yarn are closing in."
Bed linen is a significant value-added segment of Pakistans textile exports. About $27.3 billion worth of Pakistan-made bed linen has been sold overseas between 2003 and 2013.
In the textile value-added sector, bed linen, cotton woven fabrics and men suiting contributed to top five export commodities in CY13. Who would have thought that men suiting would contribute to $1.21 billion in foreign export earnings in CY13? But it has!
But agriculture exports have also made their mark. Cash crops of rice and cotton generated substantial foreign exchange earnings for Pakistan ($33.7 billion in total) in last decade.
In fact, back in FY08, Pakistan had become the third largest rice exporting country in the world. Hike in global prices and exceptional marketing strategies for basmati rice certainly helped. Though over the years, the seesaw performance of the rice exports owes to the debauched trend of stockpiling for artificial price hikes and frequent devastating floods.
Cotton and rice production, which have been under stress lately, must be increased to earn more export revenues. Reportedly, commercial banks have disbursed agricultural loans worth Rs334.7 billion during the 11M FY14 to farmers, a growth of 13.6 percent year on year. That may help increase the production. But there are other factors, too, that need policy attention.
In the value-added sector, the award of GSP+ facility and business-friendly textile package announced in budget can nudge the export revenues higher. But the textile industry, which contributes substantially in the foreign reserves ever year, is being subjected to the GIDC (Rs150 per mmbtu), whereas the cement industry, which provides just about $400 million of yearly exports has been exempted from the cess. This misplaced focus needs to be revisited.
The top-five exports are a mix of value-added products and raw commodities. For growth in export revenues, value-addition over simple commodity exports can help exporters grab and maintain global market shares and be more resilient to price movements.