Textile exports marginally decline by 3.14%

The declining trend in the exports of textile products continues and they decreased by 3.14% in the first nine months of the current financial year as compared to the same period last year.

The data released by Federal Bureau of Statistics showed that total textile exports were $7.765 billion in July-March period of 2007-08 compared to $8.017 billion in the same period of previous year. Almost all the products in the category of textile exports, particularly in value-added sector, performed poorly during the period under review, which turned the overall export of textile products to negative.

Textile sector has been given billions of rupees cash incentives and subsidies in the last few years to compete with its regional competitors in the international market; however industry representatives said, despite this, the intense competition is depriving the country of its share in various markets because of un-competitiveness of local products due to high cost of production. However, questions have been raised over the quality of local products by different international organizations, which stressed on improvement in the quality of products along with cutting down the cost of production.