KARACHI: In this age of cutthroat competition in the international market, the country’s textile sector has failed to grab the export orders from global buying houses, which the Bangladeshi garment sector has lost in recent months due to political turmoil in that country.
“We don’t know where these orders have gone as the local textile sector has not seen any major surge in its export orders during this period,” said a textile exporter.
According to the latest details, Bangladesh saw a 24 percent decline in its garment exports during the month of July 2007 when compared to same month a year earlier, which exporters of that country attributed to political disturbances and labour unrest for quite some time.
It is pertinent to mention that during December 2006, the same situation happened when agitation and political upheaval in Bangladesh caused a massive decline in its garment exports and the Pakistani textile sector capitalised on this situation well by grabbing a major share of their export orders.
However, this time, the country could not take advantage of this situation as no visible growth was seen in textile exports during these months.
“If you talk of political disturbance in Bangladesh the situation is not really different in Pakistan, which is also passing through an almost similar situation,” said Zubair Motiwala, a leading textile exporter, when contacted to seek his views on the situation.
Motiwala, who is frequently consulted by government on the sector’s issues and has also headed a committee formed by the government for providing relief to this vital sector of the economy, said that instability on the political front is detrimental to economy, which is evident from the happenings in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
He pointed out that foreign buyers want sustainability in supply and whenever there is disruption in the supply chain because of any reason, the diversion of orders is quite natural.
“I think that export orders diverted from Bangladesh have been grabbed by India and China, where their textile sector is doing a smooth sailing due to a stable political environment,” he felt.
About the growth in export of textile products, Motiwala said that average growth in textile export has been at just above four percent compared to required 18 percent to meet the target.
However, if the export of raw cotton and yarn has fallen, this is not to be something to worry about, however the decline in home textile is cause of concern for the local industry, which he attributed to high cost of production.
Another textile industrialist, Mushtaq Vohra, expressing similar views said that no such orders have come to Pakistan as local textile products have been rendered uncompetitive due to the high cost of production and therefore are not in a position to capitalise on the situation.
“Instead of grabbing these export orders of others, the local textile sector is struggling hard to keep its own export orders intact,” Vohra said.
He pointed out that among others, rising prices of cotton are also adding to the increased cost of production in the country, which needed to be brought down to make the local products competitive to some extent.
About falling garment exports of Bangladesh, Vohra said that though these have declined but it should also noted that there are 12 million spindles in Pakistan whereas in Bangladesh, which does not produce an ounce of cotton, but number of spindles have jumped to nine million from five million in just six months, which shows the strength of its textile sector.
“We don’t know where these orders have gone as the local textile sector has not seen any major surge in its export orders during this period,” said a textile exporter.
According to the latest details, Bangladesh saw a 24 percent decline in its garment exports during the month of July 2007 when compared to same month a year earlier, which exporters of that country attributed to political disturbances and labour unrest for quite some time.
It is pertinent to mention that during December 2006, the same situation happened when agitation and political upheaval in Bangladesh caused a massive decline in its garment exports and the Pakistani textile sector capitalised on this situation well by grabbing a major share of their export orders.
However, this time, the country could not take advantage of this situation as no visible growth was seen in textile exports during these months.
“If you talk of political disturbance in Bangladesh the situation is not really different in Pakistan, which is also passing through an almost similar situation,” said Zubair Motiwala, a leading textile exporter, when contacted to seek his views on the situation.
Motiwala, who is frequently consulted by government on the sector’s issues and has also headed a committee formed by the government for providing relief to this vital sector of the economy, said that instability on the political front is detrimental to economy, which is evident from the happenings in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
He pointed out that foreign buyers want sustainability in supply and whenever there is disruption in the supply chain because of any reason, the diversion of orders is quite natural.
“I think that export orders diverted from Bangladesh have been grabbed by India and China, where their textile sector is doing a smooth sailing due to a stable political environment,” he felt.
About the growth in export of textile products, Motiwala said that average growth in textile export has been at just above four percent compared to required 18 percent to meet the target.
However, if the export of raw cotton and yarn has fallen, this is not to be something to worry about, however the decline in home textile is cause of concern for the local industry, which he attributed to high cost of production.
Another textile industrialist, Mushtaq Vohra, expressing similar views said that no such orders have come to Pakistan as local textile products have been rendered uncompetitive due to the high cost of production and therefore are not in a position to capitalise on the situation.
“Instead of grabbing these export orders of others, the local textile sector is struggling hard to keep its own export orders intact,” Vohra said.
He pointed out that among others, rising prices of cotton are also adding to the increased cost of production in the country, which needed to be brought down to make the local products competitive to some extent.
About falling garment exports of Bangladesh, Vohra said that though these have declined but it should also noted that there are 12 million spindles in Pakistan whereas in Bangladesh, which does not produce an ounce of cotton, but number of spindles have jumped to nine million from five million in just six months, which shows the strength of its textile sector.
