Raw cotton exports plunge 48.71pc in nine months

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s raw cotton exports plunged by 48.71 percent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, numbers released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed on Thursday.  

The PBS figures revealed that the country exported about 22,812 metric tons of yarn worth $38.631 million during July-March, 2016-17, compared to 48,513 metric tons, valuing $75.324 million, in the same period during the last fiscal year.   

However, exports of natural fibre, carded or combed, increased by 85.27 percent as during the period under review about 237 metric tons of the good worth $239,000 were exported, compared to 135 metric tons worth $129,000, during the same period last fiscal.  

On month-on-month basis, about 493 metric tons of raw cotton, worth $869,000, went abroad in March, compared to 619 metric tons valuing $895,000 during the same month a year ago.  

Meanwhile, exports of the towel decreased by 3.18 percent as around 132,723 metric tons of towels worth $578.24 million were exported during the first nine months of FY2017, compared to $597.1 million in the same period last year.  

Towels exports grew by 15.78 percent during March, compared to the same period in the previous fiscal. About 15,325 metric tons of towels worth $70.354 million were exported in March, compared the 13,551 metric tons valuing $50.76 million of the same month a year back.  

Similarly, exports of bedlinen, in the first nine months, grew by 5.11 percent as about 263,814 metric tons of the merchandise worth $1.585 billion were sold overseas, compared to 244,295 metric ton valuing $1.508 billion in the same period of last year. 

On a month-on-month basis, bedwear exports increased by 5.43 percent to be recorded at 29,259 metric tons valuing $180 million as against the 28,995 metric tons worth $171.182 million in the same month last year.