PAKISTAN: Pakistani textile industry has only 20% share in domestic market
LAHORE: The textile industry of Pakistan is more vulnerable to global recession than its competitors as its share in domestic market is limited to 20 per cent although the local consumption of fibre is equivalent to over 40 per cent of its production capacity.
Egytex News Desk
Source: The International News
The textile experts say that the industry's share in the domestic market has been eroded by free flow of used or worn clothing and rampant increase in smuggling of ladies fabric along with readymade garments being brought in the country through personal baggage.
The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Punjab) former chairman Akber Shaikh said that other major textile exporting nations like India and China are better able to withstand the pressure of reduced exports due to global recession or any other factor because they have larger shares in their home markets.
He said the only difference between these two countries and Pakistan is that they have better controls on their borders that effectively check smuggling of foreign fabric or other textiles. These countries discourage import of worn clothing.
The customs in China and India strictly monitor global rates and do not clear under invoiced goods.
Akbar Shaikh said there is a huge demand for Pak made ladies cotton fabric in India but its smuggling is checked and its import is subjected to high duty based on minimum duty payable per kg that makes the fabric costly.
On the other hand he added smuggled Indian and Chinese fabric is freely available in all cloth markets of Pakistan.
A study by The News revealed that Pakistan imported 263.371 million kg of used (or worn) clothing worth Rs7.685 billion in 2008-09. This means that the per capita used clothing consumption in Pakistan is 1.62 kg.
The Indians on the other hand imported only 43.640, which translate into per capita consumption of worn clothing in India to only 0.03 kg.
Another point worth noting is that the imports of worn clothing are rapidly rising in Pakistan, which stood at 174.592 million kg in 2007-08 and the per capita worn cloth consumption in the country was 1.07 kg. The quantum of smuggling can not be evaluated.
However a visit to any market in Pakistan would reveal that most of the blended ladies fabrics in Pakistan are smuggled in to the country. Ladies usually prefer blended fabrics.
The children garments also find their way in large quantity through personal baggage. Ladies constitute 50 per cent of our population.
Assuming that the smuggled quantity is equivalent to that of worn clothing then smuggled ladies fabrics also account for 1.62 per capita consumption of fibre.
Children garments and other textile imports account for another 0.5 kg per capita consumption of fibre.
It was also found that the local textile industry produced 3,040,910 ton of fibre in 2008-09 out of which 20 per cent or 615,314 ton was consumed in the domestic market and the rest was exported. This is equivalent 615.314 million kg or per capita consumption of 3.62 kg.
The cumulative use of foreign processed fibre in Pakistan is 3.74 kg per capita (1.62 kg worn clothing 1.62 kg ladies blended smuggled fabric and 0.5 kg children wear). This is a little higher than the per capita consumption of the locally processed fabric in the country.
This means that the consumption of local fabric could be doubled if the influx of foreign processed fibers is effectively checked.
Source: The International News
From the Egytex news archive, first published on 3 March 2010. Figures and names are as reported at the time.
