To highlight the operational difficulties faced by the apparel manufacturers owing to frequent yarn price rise in the last few months, hundreds of knitwear exporters affiliated to Tirupur Exporters and Manufacturers Association (TEAMA) observed fast here on Thursday.
TEAMA secretary K. Ramesh Kumar said that since the prices of yarns skyrocketed by around 50 per cent in the last eight months, it was becoming increasingly difficult for the predominant small and medium scale apparel exporters from the Tirupur cluster to remain competitive in the global garment market.
Encouraging
Mr. Kumar was of the opinion that cotton and cotton yarn exports should be banned altogether if the Government was keen to control the domestic prices of yarn.
“Through export of cotton and yarn we are now encouraging our competitors in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam and China, among other nations, to come out with value-added apparels at cheaper costs and pose competition to the Indian exporters,” he pointed out.
The TEAMA members wanted the Central Government to set up a high-powered committee to monitor the production and supply of cotton and yarn and ensure that these raw materials were sold to the domestic producers in requisite quantities.
Response to the agitation call was overwhelming as trade unionists, members of other textile associations like Knit Cloth Manufacturers Association, Tirupur Industrial Federation, and representatives of various leading political parties visited the fasting members and spoke in support of the issue. Prominent among them include MLA C. Govindasamy, former MP and All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) state president K. Subbarayan, Deputy Mayor K. Senthil Kumar, and KNITMA president S. Rathinasamy.
