ISLAMABAD(April-21-2025) Business leader and former President of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), Dr. Shahid Rasheed Butt, expressed his concerns on Monday regarding the alarming surge in competition within the global textile market, highlighting that this trend poses significant challenges for Pakistan’s textile industry.
He remarked that, despite the growing intensity of competition in the textile sector, the associated business costs are not decreasing. Instead, they are on the rise, mainly due to the industry’s reliance on costly imported cotton. This dependence has a significant impact on profit margins and the overall sustainability of operations in the face of market challenges.
Shahid Rashid Butt said in a statement issued here that Pakistan had become a cotton-importing country from a cotton-exporting country, and now billions of dollars’ worth of cotton are being imported every year, which is regrettable.
He noted that the problems of the textile industry and exporters are continuously increasing. Several units have been closed, and thousands have lost their jobs due to unresolved issues.
He said that during the first nine months of the current fiscal year, more than $3 billion worth of cotton was imported, compared to $1.93 billion spent on imports in the same period last year, which is shocking.
Shahid Rashid Butt said that during the current fiscal year, the exports of the textile sector were $13.6 billion, which was $12.44 billion in the same period last year.
He said that until the 1990s, Pakistan had earned a lot of foreign exchange by meeting local needs for cotton and selling it on the global market. However, later, due to various reasons, the interest of cotton farmers decreased, and they started growing sugarcane and other crops in large quantities.
Pakistan’s sugar production is in surplus, and the government must pay heavy subsidies to export it yearly. He observed that the situation could improve if cotton farmers were encouraged and sugarcane production was reduced according to the country’s needs.
However, he said that due to the influence of the sugar mafia, no government is willing to take any step against their interests, resulting in billions of dollars wasted on the export of surplus sugar and the import of cotton.
