PAKISTAN: Iceland volcanic ash hits textile production

Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Prgmea), Mohsin Ayub Mirza said that there were scores of samples of different textile items, which had been sent to European and the US buyers could not reach due to aviation disorder. The samples are likely to reach the destinations in two weeks, while their sorting out by the buyers will also take an ample time, as a result the local exporters will need to wait for at least three weeks to finalize the production, he pointed out.He said that the production process would not start until the exporters receive the final nod from buyers. He added that the cost of production was also feared to mount because of the flights rescheduling with inflated fares. The global aviation disorder has drastically limited the local exporters traveling to and within Europe as well as to the Northern America, he added.To a question, Mohsin said that the chaotic continent had also struck delays to the textile sample shipments of other business rival countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India and other countries.

He said that the already hit local garments textile industry by the yarn shortage had faced another disaster from the global chaos, hoping that the traveling to European would soon return to normal. Prgmea Chairman said that there were no worries about the production losses, as these were minimal compared to the losses industry faced in the wake of yarn shortage this fiscal year.Chairman Pakistan Apparel Forum Muhammad Javed Bilwani expressed ignorance over the production had come to a halt for a specific period because of European flights cancellation. However, he said that he being a chairman had come to know about the traveling problems of many exporters, as a result of aviation disaster.