India to raise FY13 textile & apparel export target.

Despite the economic volatility and downtrend experienced in the Western markets, including the EU and the US, India plans to achieve a higher textile and garment export target during the current fiscal.

The EU and the US, which jointly account for more than half of India’s textile exports, are hit by financial crisis.

However, having identified new export avenues like Africa and Latin America, where there is immense demand, India aims to set its textile and garment export target for the current fiscal at US$ 38 billion, experts said.

This is a 12 percent rise over last fiscal’s textile and clothing exports of US$ 34 billion. In 2010-11, India’s textile and garment exports were worth US$ 26.8 billion.

In spite of a rise in its exports figures, India’s textile and apparel export performance has lagged behind its global competitors over the past few years. While China caters to around 28.3 percent of world textile and clothing demand, India accounts for a meagre 4.3 percent share.

Experts believe that India needs to focus on finding out ways to grow its textile and garment exports.

Indian apparel industry should work hard to strengthen its safety, labour and health compliances to enhance its global competitiveness, they added.

They stressed that the Government and the textile and garment exporters should jointly initiate efforts for identifying new export avenues, as this could reap better results this fiscal.

Source : fibre2fashion.com