"The quality of products is not bad. But there are areas like marketing and product designing where improvements could be made. There is a big population of around 400 million customers in the Europe, one of the most open markets. The exporter should have a better notion of the market," felt Marechal Desmet and Johan F Laman Trip, product consultants in textiles. The two are from Centre for Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI), an agency under the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

With China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh emerging strong competitors for the `made in India' garments in the European region, the exporters would be required to have a better feel of the market.

Europe, they said, is experiencing a revival of the fashion trends. "They cannot remain manufacturers of garments anymore. They have to understand the markets and interact frequently with the end consumer," Laman said.

According to him, a major problem which the industry has to address urgently is the issue of consistency in quality. The Indian garment exports have been on the decline in the European markets.

On the issue of brand promotion exercises, the CBI officials felt this could be achieved if quality is improved to the required levels. Certain strategic issues, they felt, have to be sorted out through interactions.

The CBI consultants are holding export marketing workshops on garments to improve EU market position at various locations in the country, including Tirupur and Chennai.

CBI assists small and medium enterprises and trade promotion organisations in developing export capabilities.

It also assists importers in the EU with import of products and services from developing countries. Ironically, the organisation will holdsimilar workshops in Indonesia and Bangladesh too.