ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s textile exports surged by 8.07 per cent in July 2026, hitting $1.814 billion compared with $1.678 billion a year earlier, buoyed by strong demand for garments, towels and knitwear, official data showed Tuesday.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics said garments exports increased by 15 percent in July to $128 million, knitwear up by 4.06pc to $533.8 million. Bedwear and towel shipments also increased by 4.16 per cent to $308.5 million and 13.4pc to $106.4 million respectively. Besides, cotton yarn exports were up by 18.7pc to $66.5 million, however cotton cloth sales abroad remained almost static at $141.6 million.
Food exports were also up 2.47pc to $437 million. Rice, one of the country’s top foreign exchange earners, was up 19.15pc to $200 million, where basmati was up 37.37pc to $76.5 million and other rice verities increased by 10.1pc to $123.5 million. Vegetable exports fell sharply, down 19.13pc to $12.8 million. Meat exports were up by 16.2pc to $47 million, however fruit exports sharply declined by 33.7pc to $33.7 million. Fish and seafood exports minutely increased by 0.43pc to $22.5 million.
Sports goods exports declined 20.2pc to $31 million, with 43pc decline in football shipments that stood at $14.65 million. Surgical instruments increased 8.4pc to $41.5 million, while cement exports increased by 9.6pc to $38.2 million.
Chemical and pharmaceutical exports were up 24pc to $127.2 million. Plastic materials exports increased 38pc to $34.6 million and there was a 16 percent decline in pharmaceutical goods exports to $28.7 million.
Imports also expanded, with food imports up 8.12pc to 805.5 million in July, transport sector 39.7pc to $422.3 million, machinery 41.3pc to $1.31 billion, however petroleum imports were down by 5.2pc to $1.276 billion.
Petroleum products import were down 22.6pc to $491.5 million and imports of LNG declined by 23.6pc to $176.7 million. Whereas, crude oil imports increased by 29.8pc to $517 million, and LPG increased by 11.7pc to $91.7 million.
The machinery group, electrical machinery imports were up by 87.7 per cent to $549.5 million, and a 7.26pc rise in power generation equipment to $60.9 million. Imports of construction and mining machinery increased by 158pc to $28.4 million, and agricultural machinery increased 25.87pc to $18.16 million.
Similarly, telecom machinery imports were up 22.26pc to $235 million, with mobile phone imports down 3.56pc to $140.4 million. Besides, the office machinery, including data processing equipment imports increased 74.6pc to $109.2 million. While in contrast, textile machinery imports were down by 30.9pc to $46.4 million.
In food segment, palm oil imports increased 18.6pc to $359 million, tea 42pc to $59.7 million, pulses 8.76pc to $22.3 million and infant milk by 24.9pc to $18.8 million.
Transport sector imports, however, jumped 39.7pc to $422.3 million. Under the complete knockdown/ semi-knockdown (CKD/SKD) motor vehicle category, imports increased by 37.4pc to $374 million. The import of complete built units of cars increased by 74.8pc to $57.4 million, while the CKD/SKD cars imports were 39.7pc higher to $188 million.
