Tirupur, the knitwear and readymade garment capital of India, has reasons to smile. The revival in demand from traditional markets like Europe and the US and rupee depreciation against the US dollar, coupled with expected additional orders from newer markets such as Africa, Russia and Israel, will see the cash registers ringing, say garment exporters from the region.
After two years of flat growth, the Tirupur Exporters? Association (TEA), consisting of over 700 exporting units, expects to post 20% growth in the current fiscal. Having reported exports worth R13,000 crore for the last fiscal ended March 2013 from the previous fiscal?s R12,500 crore, the association hopes to ride high on early order flows and encouraging enquiries from Europe and US customers.
?We are looking at 20% growth in the current fiscal and may be even more, if the Indo-Europe FTA (free trade agreement) goes through as expected during the fiscal,? said TEA president A Sakthivel. ?The agreement with Europe would solve most of our problems as Europe too is willing to export their textile (raw) material to countries like India,? he said.
Currently, Europe alone accounts for close to 50% of total exports, he pointed out. This apart, TEA also expects migration of some orders belonging to Bangladesh to come India?s way.
Speaking to FE, he said, ?In 2012-2013, though exports grew marginally in rupee terms, (thanks to depreciation of the rupee against the dollar), in volume terms there was no increase.We see mounting competition from Bangladesh and China among others, but India still holds for its quality, prompt supply and services. As a de-risking strategy, TEA has taken a decision to enter deep into Africa, Israel and Russia, among other countries.?
Revenue from these countries expects to touch 10% of total exports in the next two years against the current 2%, Sakthivel said.
