Statistics on textile industry in Pakistan

The Textile sector contributes 9.5% to the GDP.


Our Correspondent March 17, 2013
At present, there are 1,221 ginning units, 442 spinning units, 124 large spinning units and 425 small units which produce textile products.

Pakistan is the 8th largest exporter of textile products in Asia. This sector contributes 9.5% to the GDP and provides employment to about 15 million people or roughly 30% of the 49 million workforce of the country.  Pakistan is the 4th largest producer of cotton with the third largest spinning capacity in Asia after China and India, and contributes 5% to the global spinning capacity.

For Pakistan which was one of the leading producers of cotton in the world, the development of a textile Industry making full use of its abundant resources of cotton has been a priority area towards industrialisation. At present, there are 1,221 ginning units, 442 spinning units, 124 large spinning units and 425 small units which produce textile products.

Even with so many advantages, Pakistan’s total share in global textile trade is less than 1%. To some this may seem like a depression state of affairs. But to others, it is simply an opportunity.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18th, 2013.

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COMMENTS (1)

yousuf agha | 11 years ago | Reply

It is extremly unfortuanate that pakistan has NOT capitilsed on its agricultural strength of cotton , to transform it in to garments / home textiles etc , rather we sell of cotton as cotton , yarn or just weaved fabric AS a comodity.

We are stuck at 12.3 billion $ figure in our textile exports. The govt needs to encourage the value added sector to invest more AND also tap markets other than the traditional EU , UK and USA regions.

just to give a basic idea that 1 ton of yarn fetches 4$ , whilst 1 ton of bedwear grabs more than 500$

Unfortunately out of our total 12 billion $ exports , our total exports of ready-made garments, which sit at the top of the value-added chain is just about a billion dollars or less than 10% of our total textile exports.

Pakistan has "almost zero share" of branded and high-value fashion and textile in the global market, (despite huge public demand for such products in Europe and the US) This demand is being fulfilled by our South Asian competitors, including India, China and Bangladesh.

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