http://www.dawn.com/2006/07/08/ebr1.htm


Grey cloth, bedwear exports may touch $4bn




By Parvaiz Ishfaq Rana

KARACHI, July 7: Exports of two major items -- grey cloth and bedwear -- are expected to cross $2 billion mark each during the fiscal year 2005-06 after achieving a record export growth during the first 11 months of the fiscal.

It will be the first time in the history of the country that export earnings from these commodities will be exceeding $2 billion each.

Another encouraging development is a surge in export of rice which has also joined the ‘one-billion-dollar club’. Three other commodities -– cotton yarn, knitwear and garments -- are already in the club.

Bedwear exports made a leap jump of over $600 million in a single year, touching $2 billion in FY06, while grey cloth, which is a semi-finished product and by far lesser in value-addition, is also close to $2-billion exports.

According to official statistics, grey cloth exports during July-May FY06 stood at $1.943, only $57 million away from the $2-billion mark. Its export in 2004-05 touched $1.994 billion.

Bedwear exports, which stood at $1.408 billion in the fiscal year 2004-05, scrambled to $1.827 billion during July-May FY06, only $173 million short of the $2-billion mark, to be filled by exports in June 2006. It is a fabulous growth in exports of bedwear because no other items have touched the $600-million mark in a single year.

Rice exports, which stood at $933 million during the fiscal year 2004-05, just crossed the $1-billion mark and will add another couple of millions in June 2006 export figures.

Giving brief details about the bedwear industry and its exports, Pakistan Bedwear Exporters Association (PBEA) Chairman Shabir Ahmed said till late 1980s Pakistan was only exporting white bed-sheet to Europe as their domestic industry was producing printed and higher quality bedlinen. He said in the 1990s, the export growth remained slow despite the fact that the European market started importing printed and higher quality bedlinen from Pakistan.

“It was exporters’ effort and determination which helped the bedwear industry grow and establish its products in the western world, as manufacturers kept upgrading and expanding their capacity,” he maintained.

He said bedwear exports surged after the European Union gave a duty-free excess to Pakistani products and increased textile quota by 25 per cent in 2001-02. However, thereafter some problems cropped up, as the EU imposed punitive duty of 13.1 per cent on imports of bedlinen from Pakistan, just a year prior to start of the quota-free regime on January 1, 2005.

After a lot of negotiations, Mr Shabir said, the EU announced a partial review of the duty, as Pakistan argued that investigations carried out by the European Commission were not completed. The EC gradually reduced the duty from 13.1 per cent on three disclosures made and finally it was put at 4.8 per cent, which means that Pakistani bedlinen exporters will be paying around 2.3 per cent after deducting 2.5 per cent concession under the GSP.

He said further that even on entering the quota-free regime with punitive duty of 13.1 per cent, Pakistani bedwear exporters had somehow managed to retain their market share. “Had there been a level-playing field, bedwear exporters would have performed even better.”