ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s textile exports fell to $1.3 billion in February 2026, dropping 7.2 percent year-on-year and plunging 24.6 percent from January, as most major product categories posted declines, according to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.
Exports stood at $1.738 billion in January, with shipments of knitwear, bedwear, towels, cotton cloth and readymade garments all weakening, while cotton yarn exports showed a notable increase.
Knitwear exports declined by 14.5pc to $312.5 million, bedwear exports were down 11.5pc to $220.9 million, towels 16.37pc to $81.4 million, cotton cloth 10.9pc to $132.5 million and readymade garments’ sales abroad declined by 0.56pc to $327.3 million over the same month last year. However, cotton yarn exports were up 43.6pc to $73.84 million.
The food sector exports shrank 27.5pc to $405.9 million. Rice, one of the country’s top foreign exchange earners, declined 35.4pc to $186.7 million, with basmati declining by 19.2pc to $71.4 million. Similarly, the other rice verities’ sales abroad also shrank by 42.5pc to $115.3 million.
Vegetables exports declined by 75.7pc to $15.15 million; however fruit exports increased 1.2pc to $26.9 million, oilseed, nuts and kernels exports were up by 40.7pc to $25.95 million, meat exports up by 22.1pc to $53.9 million, and fish and fish preparation exports increased by 12.9pc to $35.35 million over the same month of last year.
Sports goods exports rose 6.6pc to $33.25 million, led by a 9.4pc spike in football shipments that stood at $20 million. Surgical instruments exports, however, declined by 6.1pc to $34 million and cement exports were up by 11.2pc to $22.2 million.
On the import side, petroleum group imports declined by 21.25pc to $982.8 million in February 2026 over the same month of a year ago. Of this, petroleum products imports declined by 39.3pc to $284 million, LNG by 25.25pc to $189 million and crude oil was down by 4.55pc to $423 million. However, LPG imports increased 4.1pc to $86.7 million.
The machinery group imports year-on-year were increased by 4.3pc to $870.8 million in February 2026. Of this, the imports of construction and mining machinery increased by 13.7pc to $13.6 million, textile machinery up by 2.6pc to $46.4 million, power generation machinery up by 8.7pc to $68.1 million. Telecom machinery imports also increased by 21.1pc to $211.5 million, with mobile phone imports up by 17.95pc to $155.5 million. Agricultural machinery imports also increased 74.8pc to 14 million; however, electrical machinery and apparatus imports dipped by 40pc to $184 million.
Food sector imports increased 13.6pc to $908.1 million. Of this, palm oil imports increased 5.3pc to $385.6 million and tea by 33.8pc to $61.4 million in February 2026. However, spices import was down 2.1pc to $22 million and pulses imports declined by 25.5pc to $71.4 million.
Transport sector imports, however, jumped 48.8pc to $299 million. Under the build units and complete knockdown/semi-knockdown (CKD/SKD) motor vehicle category, imports increased by 47.3pc to $291 million. The import of complete built units of cars increased by 43pc to $36 million, while the CKD/SKD cars imports was 68.5pc higher to $157 million.
