Country’s finished textile products saw a sharp decline in average unit price (AUP) in the foreign markets during the current financial year, mainly on account of problems in scheduled shipment of these products along with some reasons. The infrastructure problems like port congestion and deteriorating law and order situation are the major cause for less demand of Pakistani finished products, said Zubair Motiwala, textile exporter and former President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI).

He said foreign buyers are interested to import the raw material from Pakistan instead of finished products because of inability of the local exporters to deliver the orders in time. Motiwala also cited the falling cotton prices in the international market and depreciation of rupee against dollar as the reasons for finished products to fetch less AUP.

However, he asserted that major reason is the uncertainty with the timely delivery of export shipments especially for the Christmas season in America and Europe, which is resulting in the low export price of local value-added textile products. The low average unit price deprived the country of the badly needed foreign exchange despite the fact that the quantity of these products was substantially higher during these months compared to the previous year.

The total export of textile products was $6.4 billion during July-November period as compared to $5.7 billion in the same period of previous year. However, Zubair Motiwala said that total export of these products during these months was still 4% low against the export target for the period under review.