The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Advisor Shahid Sattar disclosed the textile industry in Pakistan is facing a loss of $500 million following delay in issuance of the revised permit to import cotton from India. He said the textile industry needed Indian organic cotton to maintain exports stimulus, “We have been sensitising the Ministry of National Food Security and Research for a long time about the clearance of cotton from India, but the Ministry remains unmoved.”

Sattar said the delay has imposed tremendous losses to the industry which was already struggling following the high cost of doing business, “The delay in approving the revised permit for importing Indian cotton is going to multiply the miseries for the industry.”An official in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research said the Ministry has received a letter from APTMA about the issue and was under consideration. The letter titled “Issue of Import of Cotton,” which was sent to Fazal Abbas Mekan, Secretary of Ministry of National Food Security on January 16. The letter said toeing the government’s policies, the mills purchased a reasonable volume of specific organic cotton from India in the last few weeks. However, currently, the Indian certifying authorities (Control Union) have refused to issue any certificate stating the organic cotton has been fumigated prior to the shipment.

Indian exporters and shippers are asking the Pakistan side to provide revised permits which exclude the fumigation losses, or permit non-chemical fumigation treatment. “This is causing problems for the spinning industry in Pakistan as we have a lot of organic yarn/fabric programmes and thus it would adversely impact the spinning industry,” the letter noted. As a result, the spinning industry would lose significant amount of organic yarn exports.

APTMAs says, “We are paying the authorities every year to get the licence (Global Organic Textile Standard and Organic Content Standard certificates) to sell organic yarns and fabrics. Pakistan does not produce organic cotton and this is why the industry needs to import organic cotton to compete globally.”