Silk garment exports rise on demand from UK, UAE
Financial Express, India
JAISHANKAR JAYARAMIAH
Posted online: Wednesday, February 21, 2014 at 0000 hours IST
BANGALORE, FEB 20: A new trend has been emerging in the Indian silk segment as the country’s readymade silk garments have started witnessing steady export growth while the traditional silk carpets are struggling for survival in the overseas markets.
The UK and UAE have emerged as two major countries, which increased the silk procurement from India at remarkable levels in recent times.
The ministry of textiles had set a target to export silk goods including readymades, carpets and wastes worth Rs 3,200 crore during the current fiscal. According to latest statistics available with Central Silk Board, the country has already exported silk materials worth Rs 1,669 crore, achieving 51% of the set target during the first half of the current fiscal ended September 2014.
Export of the Indian silk products are classified under four categories like readymade garments, silk carpets, silk waste and natural silk yarn, fabrics. The main growth came from readymade garment segment, which witnessed a year-on-year growth of 21% with exports of Rs 620 crore during April-September 2014, up from Rs 511 crore a year ago.
The UK, US, Italy, UAE and Germany have emerged as five top countries importing Indian silk goods during the first half, accounting for 28.1%, 11%, 6.1%, 5.7% and 5.4% respectively of total export earnings of the country.
Among all, the silk imports of the UK from India during the period jumped by whopping 22% to Rs 183 crore from Rs 150 crore a year ago while the Indian exports to UAE surged by 28% to Rs 95 crore from Rs 74 crore. Interestingly, the exports of silk waste during the period more than doubled to 864 tonne from 341 tonne, fetching Rs 10.39 crore, up from Rs 5.96 crore a year ago.
