Pakistan sees 4.97pc decline in textile, 76.5pc increase in rice exports in first half of FY24

ISLAMABAD: The textile exports fell nearly 5 percent in the first half of the fiscal year, while rice exports soared amid a ban by rival India, official data showed on Friday.

Textile sales in the international market declined by $430 million, or 4.97 percent, during the July-December period of 2023-24, with its total exports reaching $8.28 billion compared to $8.71 billion in the same period last year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data showed on Friday.

Conversely, rice exports saw a notable increase, rising by $710 million or 76.5 percent to reach $1.638 billion.

The PBS data also revealed a modest recovery in textile exports in December 2023, with a year-on-year increase of 3.3 percent, bringing the monthly total to $1.4 billion. Whereas, rice exports experienced a substantial surge, witnessing a remarkable increase of 190.5 percent ($340.1 million) during the month, reaching $518.64 million compared to $178.5 million in the corresponding month a year ago.

Basmati rice exports during the month increased by 54.7 percent to $80.8 million, and other verities’ exports increased by 247 percent to $438 million. In the first half of this fiscal, basmati total exports increased 30 percent to $367.4 million and other rice sales increased 96.9 percent to $1.27 billion.

Similarly, in volumetric terms too, rice exports increased substantially by 156 percent to 0.85 million tons in December 2023 from 0.33 million tons in December 2022. Whereas, in the first half of FY24, its exports increased 48.3 percent to 2.57 million tons from 1.73 million tons last year.

The surge in rice exports is attributed to India's ban on rice exports, leading to a notable increase in foreign exchange earnings for Pakistan. However, the local market has seen a spike of over 100 percent in staple prices, impacting the budgets of millions of Pakistanis.

The PBS data reveals a month-on-month increase of 6.1 percent in textile exports from $1.318 billion in November 2023. Notably, over the past 15 months, textile exports mostly declined, with minor increases in October and December 2023.

In the previous fiscal year (July-June 2022-23), total textile exports fell by 14.6 percent to $16.5 billion compared to the record high of $19.35 billion in FY22.

The detailed data of the Bureau revealed that in December 2023, sales of the major value-added segments including readymade garments declined by 6.45 percent to $298.5 million, cotton cloth by 11.7 percent to $143.6 million, and made-up articles (excluding towels) reduced by 15.86 percent to $60 million over a year ago. Whereas, knitwear exports increased 4.14 percent to $366.75 million, bedwear by 8.6 percent to $226.3 million, and towels by 6.57 percent to $87.6 million. Similarly, the cotton yarn exports also increased by 78.6 percent to $95.25 million compared to December 2022 exports.

In the food group, during December 2023, meat and meat preparations sales abroad increased by 40.8 percent to $44 million, vegetables by 163.5 percent to $40.5 million, and tobacco exports up by 878 percent to $28.2 million. Whereas, exports of fruits were down by 5.1 percent to $43.2 million and fish and fish preparations decreased by 5.9 percent to $37 million over the same month last year.

Football exports in December increased 18.6 percent to $22.1 million, chemicals and pharmaceuticals increased by 1.6 percent to $116.5 million and cement exports also increased 151 percent to $21.9 million over December 2022. However, surgical goods exports went down 4.7 percent to $36.8 million.

Besides, plastic materials exports increased 150 percent to $33.7 million and engineering goods by 13.6 percent to $26.8 million, while leather manufacturing exports were down by 17.15 percent to $44.15 million and footwear by 15.8 percent to $13.9 million in December 2023.

Imports

During July-December of FY24, petroleum group imports declined by 13.8 percent to $8 billion against $9.3 billion in the same period of FY23. Of this, the import of petroleum products was reduced by 24 percent to $3.2 billion, crude oil by 5.9 percent to $2.6 billion, LNG by 4.96 percent to $1.85 billion, and LPG imports also reduced by 2.7 percent to $348 million.

In December, the petroleum group’s total imports declined by 2.11 percent to $1.55 million against $1.585 billion in December 2022. Petroleum products imports fell 18 percent to $532.6 million. Whereas, crude imports increased by 11.1 percent to $558.6 million, LNG by 4.9 percent to $386.6 million and LPG imports increased 9.5 percent to $74 million.

Machinery imports in December increased by 41.15 percent to $670.5 million, with a major chunk of mobile sets imports and electrical machinery. Last year in the same month, the imports were at 475 million.

Of this group, agriculture machinery imports increased by 183 percent to $4.8 million, and electrical machinery and apparatus imports also increased by 181 percent to $225 million. Likewise, telecom machinery and other apparatus also saw a 96.4 percent increase to $216.3 million. In the telecom sector, Pakistanis imported mobile sets of $176 million in December which is 144 percent more than last year’s December imports of $72.3 million. However, construction and mining machinery imports fell by 36 percent to $6.45 million, textile machinery by 53.5 percent to $12.1 million, and power generation machinery imports reduced by 38.5 percent to $30.2 million. The transport sector’s total imports in December 2023 increased by 29.2 percent to $181.7 million against $140.6 million in December 2022. Of the transport sector’s total imports, spending on road motor vehicles (built units, CKD/SKD) stood at 171.7 million which was 45.6 percent more than $118 million in the same month of last year.

However, on completely built units (CBU), imports of buses, trucks, and other heavy vehicles experienced an increase of 50.5 percent to $27.9 million. Of this, imports of motor car units increased by 149 percent to $20.5 million compared to the same month last year’s imports of $8.2 million.

Regarding CKD/SKD models, imports of cars, motorcycles, buses, trucks, and other heavy vehicles increased by 75 percent to $118.6 million. Of this, motor car imports increased by 167 percent to $104 million. Motorcycle imports however reduced by 22 percent to $2.76 million, and parts and accessories imports were also down by 14.8 percent to $22.8 million