Tirupur Exporters’ Association (TEA), India’s leading readymade/ knitwear cluster, has reported a 8.3% growth in its exports at Rs 26,000 crore in fiscal 2019 compared to Rs 24,000 crore in the previous fiscal.
The association has also registered a domestic sale of `24,000 crore, taking its total businesses during the fiscal to Rs 50,000 crore, said Raja M Shanmugham, president, TEA.
Speaking to FE, Shanmugham said: “We have seen a tremendous pick-up in our exports in the last six months of fiscal 2019 after a sluggish growth in the first half. Though the annual average export growth of 7% was recorded in the last fiscal, while analysing the exports trend in the last six months, the average export growth was significant about 31.15% over the corresponding period in 2017-18, which we see as a positive sign and most encouraging.”
“For the past two years, we were struggling due to various reasons, including demonetisation, implementation of GST and overall volatile global economy.
However, the Tirupur cluster regained the lost momentum and able to post a better-than-expected growth in the fiscal 2019 as most of the major issues have settled now and the member-companies of this region are back to growth trajectory,” Shanmugham said.
At the national level, readymade garment exports recorded a growth of 4.7% to `1,12,715 crore in fiscal 2018-19 against `1,07,679 crore achieved in the previous fiscal, he added.
“While appreciating Tirupur exporters’ usual perseverance against all odds, we are confident that with the continuance of positive growth trend coupled with the recent increase in RoSCTL rate and formation of stable government, Tirupur exports are poised to surpass `30,000-crore reach, both in exports as well as domestic sales in the current financial year (2019-20), taking the overall business of the cluster to `60,000 crore,” Shanmugham said.
In response to a query, he said: “We are now confident that the Tirupur cluster will achieve its ambitious business target of `100,000 crore (both exports and domestic sales) by fiscal 2022.”
According to him, factors like changing design pattern across the globe, changing lifestyle both in India and abroad, availability of cotton, skilled workforce, fashion-oriented world, more per capita spending on garments and China’s non-aggressive push are among a host of things that will benefit India in general and Tirupur exporters in particular. “We are seeing encouraging prospects in the years to come,” he said.
Kids and women garments continue to drive the exports. Together, this segment garners 70% of total businesses while the rest comes from menswear, Shanmugham said, adding that traditional markets such as the US, Europe, Africa and Latin America continue to be the major export destinations.
Published On : 18-04-2019
Source : Financial Express
