LAHORE: Leading participants were not very active in the local cotton market on Monday while the trading volume is low.
Cotton Analyst Naseem Usman told Business Recorder that Spot Rate remained unchanged. He also told that rate of cotton in Punjab and Sindh is in between Rs 18000 to Rs 20,000 per maund.
Cotton Analyst Naseem Usman told that Pakistan aims to launch the Better Work Program (BWP to enable it to achieve decent work standards, especially in the export-oriented textiles and apparel sector, as per a report by the Ministry of Commerce (MoC).
Titled, “GSP+ Insights Pakistan”, the report further revealed that the country is co-funding ILO BWP through Export Development Fund, with support from European Commission.
According to the statistics mentioned in a report, Pakistan’s exports to the EU have increased from €3.56 billion in 2013 to €6.64 billion in 2021, registering an increase of 86 per cent.
While Pakistan’s imports from the EU member states have also increased from €3.31 billion in 2013 to €5.59 billion in 2021, which represents an increase of 69 per cent.
Since 2013, EU’s exports to Pakistan have increased substantially in many sectors including machinery (49 per percent) Iron & Steel (114 per cent) Pharmaceuticals (143 percent) Plastics (79 per cent ) and medical measuring instruments (45 percent).
Exports to 12 EU member states that have increased by more than 100 per cent include Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Denmark, Ireland, Cyprus, Spain, Netherlands, etc.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s textile exports surged by 26 per cent to hit a record high of $12.6 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year 2021-22. Data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) shows, in rupee terms, Pakistan’s textile exports witnessed an increase of 33 per cent to Rs2.15 trillion during the first eight months of fiscal year 2022.
During the first eight months of fiscal year 2022, knitwear exports increased by 34 per cent on a year-on-year basis to $3.3 billion followed by ready-made garments which were up 25 per cent to $2.5 billion and bed-wear recording a growth of 20 per cent to $2.2 billion.
On a monthly basis, Pakistan textile exports grew by 8 per cent on a month-on-month basis in February. In addition, knitwear and ready-made garments exports grew by 7 per cent each to $414 million and $354 million, respectively.
Compared with last year, Pakistan textile exports surged byb36 per cent on a year-on-year and up 50 per cent on a year-on-year basis in rupee terms in February 2022, led by significant growth witnessed in value-added segments, largely in knitwear, up 42 per cent and ready-made up 49 per cent amidst volumetric growth.
Basic textile exports increased 35 percent on a year-on-year basis to $369 million where major contribution comes from cotton cloth, up 56 percent to $233 million.
Moreover, the government is to extend Cash Credit Limit (CCL) to Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to initially procure 2 million bales of cotton at intervention price during season 2022-23, after Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment proposed that cotton should be directly procured from farmers instead of ginners, well-informed sources told Business Recorder.
The Ministry of National Food Security and Research briefed the ECC that Pakistan had the potential to produce 20 million bales, as compared to 7.01 million bales produced in 2020-21, provided historic cotton area is re-gained, farmers are supported with appropriate technology and also ensured a fair price.
Textile exports have risen to 20.5 billion dollars in the first eight months (July-February) of the current fiscal year compared to 16.3 billion dollars in the comparable period of the year before — a rise of around 26 percent. While this highly significant increase must be appreciated yet two observations are in order. First, the rise in exports is not as much in volume as in a rise in the general price level in importing countries as well as the resurgence of sales subsequent to the easing of pandemic-related restrictions.
And second, Pakistan’s major textile products’ buyers are in the West including the European Union—which extended the GSP plus status to Pakistan in 2014 that continues to contribute significantly to a rise in our textile exports to Europe.
Western countries are pressurizing those that have not denounced the Russian invasion of Ukraine to do so, including China, its Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, told his Spanish counterpart this week that China “is not party to the crisis, still less wants to be affected by the sanctions” imposed on Russia.
Pakistan, from an economic perspective, is in a much weaker position economically and cannot afford to be impacted by Russian sanctions and in this context one would hope that cabinet members, including the Prime Minister, do not make any public comments and instead allow the Foreign Office to deal with it.
The Spot Rate remained unchanged at Rs 20,000 per maund. Polyester Fiber was available at Rs 285 per kg.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
Comments
Comments are closed.