Gaining ground: German textile event yields order bonanza

PTEA chairman says response to country’s textile products was positive.

FAISALABAD:

Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) Chairman Sheikh Ilyas Mahmood said exporters are expecting to get foreign orders worth $1 billion from Heimtextil as the Pakistani commodity has been an attractive one on the opening day of the world’s largest home textile event in Germany.

While talking to members of the association on Thursday, Mahmood said that though Pakistani exhibitors were fewer this year than compared to the previous years, they got a positive response from international buyers.

“Heimtextil holds a great importance for Pakistani textile exporters,” said Mahmood. “Retailers around the globe visit this fair for new fashion trends and to place their orders for the upcoming spring season.”



World’s renowned departmental stores like Walmart and JC Penney also stock their inventories through this exhibition.

Pakistan has been a big participant of the Heimtextil for the last several years and has been earning foreign exchange every year by getting export orders through this event. This year, 222 textile exporters of home textile bed-wear and towel manufactures displayed their products in the exhibition.

Mahmood termed the GSP Plus status as a great edge for Pakistani textiles and said that the duty-waiver facility has provided great support to the exporters, enabling them to compete well with regional rivals in the international market.

“At the opening day of the exhibition, our exporters were confident, while the rival exporters failed to receive a response. However, Chinese exporters are a tough competition to the Pakistanis.

“Despite deceptive propaganda that Pakistani exporters could not fulfill their export commitment on time due to energy shortage, Pakistani textiles have received positive response from the buyers.

“We have introduced new designs and products to our customers for quality checking and they showed interest to place new orders.”

Mehmood said the textile industry constitutes a large share of Pakistani exports and have the ability to support the sagging economy of the country. “With better access to the EU market, Pakistan is expecting to achieve $14.5 billion of textile exports by the end of fiscal year 2014.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2014.

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