Tirupur leads the pack in garment exports
Economic Times, India
COIMBATORE: The knitwear cluster of Tirupur has crossed yet another milestone. For the first time, knitwear exports from the town has touched the Rs 8,000-crore mark for FY06, senior officials of Tirupur Exporters’ Association (TEA) said.
This showed a record growth of 33.3% over Rs 6,000 crore exports in ‘04-’05, TEA president A Sakthivel said. Normally, exports from the town registered an annual growth of about 20%.
“We are targeting Rs 10,000 crore in knitwear exports from Tirupur for the current financial year,†TEA secretary G Karthikeyan said.
Originally, Tirupur was aiming to achieve Rs 10,000-crore mark by ‘10. Tirupur had edged past Ludhiana, another key knitwear export cluster in the country, a few years ago.
“Overall, it has been a good year for the knitwear industry. There was a good increase in garment exports. We compiled the export data based on the import figures of various countries,†Mr Sakthivel said.
Though there were apprehensions as to whether Tirupur would be able to reap the benefits of the quota free regime in textiles, the town has managed to achieve good growth, he said.
While exports to the US spurted 34%, there was a 30% growth in Europe. Knitwear exports from the country stood at Rs 13,000 crore for the same period, representing a 27% increase over the previous financial year.
Meanwhile, the India Knit Fair Association (IKFA) is organising the spring/summer collections between May 10 and 12 here.
Mr Sakthivel, who is also the chairman of IKFA, said 50 new buyers from Europe would visit the fair. The IKFA has engaged an exclusive agency in Europe to bring in more buyers, he said. It is also planning to appoint an agency for the US, he added.
