AHMEDABAD: The Indian textile sector will have to improve its product basket significantly to beat fluctuations in the domestic and international markets. Even though rupee appreciation has made the Indian textile sector anxious, the country’s expected cotton production to the tune of 310 lakh cotton bales in the current fiscal will give opportunities to the market players to go for the big leap.
Addressing a seminar Texcellence 2007 at the Ahmedabad Management Association recently, textile commissioner JN Singh said: “We must realise that the same factors that have increased our domestic wealth and GDP are the ones that are attracting great dollar inflow through FII and FDI and hence making the rupee stronger.Rather than feeling anxious about the market, we must also look into what we, as textile players with tremendous global ambition, have to do.”
He pointed out that the increasing population of working women is allowing textile players to offer products in the niche segment. “With ratio of women’s ready-to-wear segment and ready-to-stitch segment at 79:21, there is a big scope for the players to pull up their socks,” he said.
The macro trends — high fashion consciousness and high growth of super premium and premium apparel categories and spending trends — are looking positive and there is huge scope for the sector, he added.
India’s contribution to global cotton production is 18.4%, second to China that produces 23.9%. In synthetic fibre category, India has a mere 5% to contribute.
Mr Singh said: “India’s export basket contains almost equally of textile and clothing—$8.9 billion and $8.2 billion respectively. However, this strength in textile production and in raw materials has not been properly leveraged for enhancing exports, as China has so capably done.
India has not been a big gainer in the early period of integration. While the share of China in global textile and clothing exports increased from 7.9% in 1990 to 14.8% in 2000 to 20.9% in 2004 and 24.1% in 2005, India’s figures are modest. India’s share increased from 2.2% in 1990 to 3.2% in 2000 to 3.1% in 2004 and 3.6% in 2005.”
He said India had insignificant foreign direct investment in the textile and clothing sector — receiving only $450.1 million between 1991 and March 2006, amounting to just 1.2% of the total FDI of $38.9 billion. “We must realise that the days when we could merely be commodity players are long gone.
It is not easy to compete with China on commodity game either in textile-clothing or in any other commodity game. We have to give value-added products which are differentiable and we have to focus on branding and specialising,” he said. Mr Singh said the government is planning to bring all the export promotion councils under one umbrella to promote jute, silk, wool, cotton and synthetic fabric in newer markets like South Africa, Russia, Latin America, Japan, apart from the US and the EU.
Technopak Advisors’ Prashant Agarwal added that with high fashion consciousness among buyers — designer wear comprising 16% and others 84% — and apparel alone contributing 20% to modern retailing in India, the sector is poised for growth. The domestic retail segment is expecting an investment of $35 billion by 2013 for a turnover of $110 billion, he said.
“Indian textile sector can offer a mix of services, skilled manpower, flexibility, fashion centric and value-for-money,” he said.
Addressing a seminar Texcellence 2007 at the Ahmedabad Management Association recently, textile commissioner JN Singh said: “We must realise that the same factors that have increased our domestic wealth and GDP are the ones that are attracting great dollar inflow through FII and FDI and hence making the rupee stronger.Rather than feeling anxious about the market, we must also look into what we, as textile players with tremendous global ambition, have to do.”
He pointed out that the increasing population of working women is allowing textile players to offer products in the niche segment. “With ratio of women’s ready-to-wear segment and ready-to-stitch segment at 79:21, there is a big scope for the players to pull up their socks,” he said.
The macro trends — high fashion consciousness and high growth of super premium and premium apparel categories and spending trends — are looking positive and there is huge scope for the sector, he added.
India’s contribution to global cotton production is 18.4%, second to China that produces 23.9%. In synthetic fibre category, India has a mere 5% to contribute.
Mr Singh said: “India’s export basket contains almost equally of textile and clothing—$8.9 billion and $8.2 billion respectively. However, this strength in textile production and in raw materials has not been properly leveraged for enhancing exports, as China has so capably done.
India has not been a big gainer in the early period of integration. While the share of China in global textile and clothing exports increased from 7.9% in 1990 to 14.8% in 2000 to 20.9% in 2004 and 24.1% in 2005, India’s figures are modest. India’s share increased from 2.2% in 1990 to 3.2% in 2000 to 3.1% in 2004 and 3.6% in 2005.”
He said India had insignificant foreign direct investment in the textile and clothing sector — receiving only $450.1 million between 1991 and March 2006, amounting to just 1.2% of the total FDI of $38.9 billion. “We must realise that the days when we could merely be commodity players are long gone.
It is not easy to compete with China on commodity game either in textile-clothing or in any other commodity game. We have to give value-added products which are differentiable and we have to focus on branding and specialising,” he said. Mr Singh said the government is planning to bring all the export promotion councils under one umbrella to promote jute, silk, wool, cotton and synthetic fabric in newer markets like South Africa, Russia, Latin America, Japan, apart from the US and the EU.
Technopak Advisors’ Prashant Agarwal added that with high fashion consciousness among buyers — designer wear comprising 16% and others 84% — and apparel alone contributing 20% to modern retailing in India, the sector is poised for growth. The domestic retail segment is expecting an investment of $35 billion by 2013 for a turnover of $110 billion, he said.
“Indian textile sector can offer a mix of services, skilled manpower, flexibility, fashion centric and value-for-money,” he said.
