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KARACHI: Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh has said that decreasing cotton production is a direct threat to the economy.
“Cotton is one of the major cash crops of the country and it provides indigenous raw material to the textile industry, Pakistan’s largest export sector’’, he said in his statement issued by FPCC on Thursday.
Textile export was expected to cross $20 billion in the outgoing fiscal year. On the other hand, yearly cotton production had been reduced to 6 or 7 million bales.
Irfan Iqbal Sheikh said Pakistan’s textile products could become much more competitive, provided we start producing entire textile raw material domestically or at least resume the previous level of 10 to 12 million bales a year.
He said that importing 1 million bales causes an outflow of $1 billion of precious foreign exchange.
FPCCI Chief explained that 60% cost of producing the textile products lies with the raw material of cotton. Producing more cotton would also strengthen our foreign exchange reserves, improve the abysmal trade balance, and put a halt to the incessant rupee depreciation.
