Textile and apparel exports in 2020-2021 are almost 13% less (in dollar terms) than the previous year, provisional data available with the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council shows.
The exports were worth $29 billion last year as against $34 billion in 2019-2020.
Exports of ready-made garments declined 20.78% last financial year compared with the previous year, while exports of man-made textile items fell 21.20 %.
Siddhartha Rajagopal, the executive director of the council, said exports of cotton textiles had declined 2.12%. This was mainly because of the COVID spread and its impact on exports last April and May. However, all textile and clothing segments, including carpet, jute, apparel, and MMF products, showed significant growth in March this year and this trend is said to have continued in April too, Mr. Rajagopal said.
The final data, expected later this month, may be better even for overall textile exports in 2020-2021. Textile and clothing exports are expected to do well at least till June since countries such as the U.S. and U.K. are looking up and China has also started buying. “We expect this year to be better than last year,” he added.
Even for apparel exports, the industry is anticipating a revival in global demand during the current financial year. A. Sakthivel, chairman of Apparel Export Promotion Council, pointed out that in April last year, apparel exports were just $127 million, while last month it was $1,294 million dollars. With the current trend, the industry can look at a 20% growth in apparel exports this financial year. However, it also depends on the pandemic and its impact world over.
