Cotton textile exports up by 28.5 pc: Texprocil

Mumbai, Sept 16: The exports of cotton textiles recorded a growth of 28.5 per cent at USD 4.87 billion for 2005-06 as compared to the previous fiscal.

In a release here today, Texprocil Chairman B K Patodia stated that the apprehensions over the prospects of Indian textile industry after abolition of quotas from January last year have been overcomed, judging by the spectacular performance. It is gratifying that exports of cotton textiles have surpassed the target of USD 4.2 billion set by the Ministry of Textiles for April 2005-March 2006, he said.

All the segments of cotton textiles have shown encouraging performance, with the home textile sector showing an impressive growth of over 39 per cent and cotton yarn growing by over 27 per cent. Exports of cotton fabrics, which were sluggish in the initial months, have also shown a rise of over nine per cent.

Cotton yarn has been able to maintain a share of 30 per cent in the overall basket of exports. In 2005-06, it has achieved a phenomenal growth of 33.42 per cent in quantity terms, reaching a level of 546 million kg. Exports of cotton yarn to USA have gone up four-fold from Rs 21.65 crore to Rs 109.12 crore, while Korea, Bangladesh and Italy continue to be our major destinations for cotton yarn. The exports to China stridently rose by 65 per cent, he added.

Complimenting the exporting community on this stellar performance, Mr Patodia stated that this robust growth in exports has shown the resilience of the Indian cotton textile industry in all the segments of textile value chain.

He acknowledged that various policy measures initiated by the government have also facilitated to achieve higher growth in exports.

Texprocil chief also stressed that the real challenge today was to sustain the export growth over a longer period of time and realise higher value per unit of export. With markets becoming increasingly segmented and consumers having a wide range of choices, India needs to develop brands for its product lines and carve out a niche for itself in the overseas markets.

Keeping in view the current growth rate of over 25 per cent in respect of cotton textile and garment exports, Mr Patodia was confident that the vision of achieving export performance of USD 50 billion by 2010 would become a reality.

UNI