Rising imports of readymades from Bangladesh has put the domestic manufacturing sector in a tight spot

After its recent appeal to brands and retailers to focus more on sourcing and engaging with domestic textile manufacturing clusters (to curb the import of readymade garments from Bangladesh), the Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF) has now appealed to the Textile Ministry to facilitate a meeting betweenbrands and domestic manufacturers for mutual benefit.

Rising imports of readymades from Bangladesh has put the domestic manufacturing sector in a tight spot. Imports are up 53 per cent to $1.07 billion in 2018-19 fiscal.

A look at the import data shows that cotton garments such as trousers, shorts and shirts (for men and boys) and cotton t-shirts are amongst the top four imported items.

“And this surge is catching up with synthetic textile products too, at a much faster rate. When all such items are commonly manufactured in clusters such as Tirupur, Chennai, Surat and Ichalkaranji, Indian manufacturers seem to be losing out to Bangladesh,” said Prabhu Dhamodharan, Convenor, ITF.

The Federation, in its appeal to Union Textile Minister Smriti Zubin Irani stated that the Indian clusters could better serve the sourcing needs of both western and Indian brands than products sourced from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or Indonesia.

Published On : 13-06-2019

Source : The Hindu Businessline