Pakistan to import 1.5m bales of cotton

KARACHI -- Leading Pakistani textile manufacturers have decided to increase imports of raw cotton from Central Asian states (CAS) four-fold to meet domestic shortages and to fulfil export orders, industrialists said.

“In 2010-11, our industry would import about 1.5m bales of long-staple raw cotton from the cotton-producing Central Asian States,” Akbar Sheikh, former chairman of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Punjab, told Central Asia Online.

Pakistan is facing a shortage of about 4m bales of raw cotton in 2010-11 after floods reduced the domestic cotton crop to 12m bales from earlier estimates of 16m.

The leading manufacturers plan to import from different countries, especially the CAS, Sheikh said.

“Usually we import 0.4m tons of raw cotton bales a year from the CAS, but in 2010-11 we want to enhance our imports to 1.5m bales to promote our trade relationship with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and other CAS,” Sheikh said.

CAS cotton is competitive in price in comparison with other cotton exporting countries, he said, and is US$50-60 less than the international price of about US$396 per bale. Another advantage of the deal is that the CAS would buy and promote finished Pakistani textile products for their consumers, he said.

The CAS imports value-added textile products from Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, China, India, Bangladesh and elsewhere, Sheikh said.

“Pakistani towels, shirts, socks and undergarments are gaining popularity in Azerbaijan and other CAS,” said Kaiser Mahmood, a Lahore-based businessman who recently set-up a wholesale towel shop in Azerbaijan. A large trade potential between Pakistan and the CAS exists that should be explored by businessmen, he said. He said the government and business should organize trade fairs in the CAS and in Pakistan to enhance their economic ties.

Transportation of goods by road is very risky and expensive, Mahmood said, so the state-run Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) should extend its operations from Azerbaijan to other CAS and run special cargo flights. The PIA currently only flies to Azerbaijan.

“Pakistan can increase its textile exports by $1 billion a year by exploring the consumer markets in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan,” Anisul Haq, Secretary of the APTMA, told Central Asia Online by phone from Lahore.

Our objective of importing more cotton from the CAS is to explore textile value-added markets there.

APTMA members are meeting with government officials to devise a strategy to develop export of textile products to the CAS, Haq said.

Despite a shortage of cotton, textile producers are making efforts to increase their annual exports from $11 billion in 2009-10 to $12 billion in 2010-11 to take full advantage of the 15-20% increase in the prices of finished products in international markets, he added.

In first three months of 2010-11, the textile exports of Pakistan grew 20% and amounted to $2.91 billion from July-September 2010, up from $2.41 billion for the same period a year earlier, he said.