FAISALABAD - Pakistani textile exporters attracted lukewarm response at Heimtextil exhibition in Germany wherein foreign buyers were seen reluctant to place export orders because of delays on time materialisation of previous commitments.
This was stated by Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) Chairman Rana Arif Tausif while talking to members of the association here on the phone.
Expressing his disappointment, Rana Arif said that Heimtextil being the biggest international trade fair for home textiles and a global benchmark for quality design textiles of innovative functionality had great importance for Pakistani textile exporters as retailers around the globe visit this fair for new fashion trends and to place their orders for coming spring season.
World’s renowned departmental stores like Wal-Mart and JC Penney also stock their inventories through this exhibition. He said that Pakistani exporters earn millions of dollars precious foreign exchange every year by getting export orders in Heimtextil.
Unfortunately severe energy crisis and constant loadshedding of gas and electricity hampered the production process creating drastic down fall in industrial output and Pakistani exporters were not able to timely honour their export commitments.
Taking advantage of this situation, rivals India and Bangladesh exporters captured our traditional markets through deceptive propaganda that Pakistani exporters could not fulfil their export commitment on time even next year due to energy shortage. These factors were main cause of hesitation for placing export orders, he said.
Rana Arif Tauseef termed the situation alarming for exports and said that gas supply to industries in Punjab has been cut off for 15 days and there seems no sign of relief in the near future. Production process has been suspended and millions of workers were rendered jobless. Petroleum Minister committed many a time but no gas was provided to industries. Meantime, long hour’s electricity shutdown was adding fuel to the crisis and have stopped production process completely, he said. The graph of textile exports was going down as textile exports in October were 160 million dollar short and in December were 190 million dollars compared to same months of last year.
PTEA Chairman urged the Government to take immediate remedial measures to save the country from severe economic loss and demanded to resolve energy crisis on emergency basis and restore gas supply to the industries enabling them to earn much needed foreign exchange for the country.