India: Christmas season encourages handicraft exports
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Chan [2011-05-20]
Recovery in economic conditions of some of the western countries and upcoming Christmas season helped Indian handicrafts to see growth in exports. Overseas shipments of these products surged up by around five times to $26.32 million i.e. around Rs. 1.22 billion in the month of October this year, against $5.27 million i.e. Rs. 0.24 billion in same month last year.
Chairman of Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts, Mr. Raj Malhotra said that the exporters started receiving orders for Christmas and the New Year season from the month of September which are better than that of last year’s. Demand for country’s handicraft items would continue to grow with an improvement in western economies, he expected.
Besides, the sops offered by the government under the Foreign Trade Policy proved helpful for the exporters to tide over the crisis.
During April-October, exports of the Indian handicraft items slipped down by 18.07 percent to $864.12 million compared to $1054.75 million in the same period last year.
Around 70 percent of India’s total handicraft products are shipped to the US and EU.