Pakistan government has taken many steps to boost cotton exports which has witnessed negative trends during the fiscal year 2015-16 as compared to the last fiscal year 2014-15.

Cotton exports have declined from $11,983 million in the fiscal year 2014-15 to $11,020 during the fiscal year 2015-16.

Due to inconsistency in yield of cotton crop, rising cost of business and shrinking global demand resulted in decrease of cotton prices in the market and consequently, this affected the exports.

The initiatives taken by the government to enhance cotton exports include a sector specific international exhibitions of textile products, as one such show TEMPO- 2016, has been organized by Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) for the first time in April this year.

In order to reduce cost of doing, business, government has reduced the electricity tariff by Rs. 3 for the industrial.

In addition, the availability of affordable finance for the export sector has considerably improved, while the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has further reduced the discount rate.

The Export Finance Rate currently at 3.5% is the lowest in a decade especially for textile sector, the sources said adding that under Textile Policy 2015-19, an amount of Rs. 64.15 billion will be spent on the textile sector to double the exports of textiles and clothing sector from the existing US$ 13 billion to US$ 26 billion by the year 2019.

Giving details about the cotton exports of past five fiscal years, the sources said that the cotton exports during the fiscal year 2014-15 were recorded at $11,984 million, while during the FY 2013-14 the cotton exports stood at $12,165 million and in 2012-13, the exports were recorded at $11,617.