Textile manufacturers should focus on sustainable textiles and look at consistency in quality, according to Prabhu Dhamodharan, convenor of Indian Texpreneurs’ Federation.
At the inaugural of a National Textile Conclave, organised here on Saturday, by Quality Circle Forum of India (QCFI) and Indian Texpreneurs Forum (ITF), Mr. Dhamodharan said that the trade war between China and the U.S. was opening up opportunities for the Indian textile industry and creating new challenges too. The trade war was reducing China’s dominance in global textile trade. Chinese textile exports to the U.S. was down 3 % - 4 %. But, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and India achieved double digit growth during the same period. India could increase its exports using this opportunity.
For every one billion dollars of textile exports, 1.5 lakh new jobs could be created. The sector employed more women - 43 % of its workforce. So, boosting textile and apparel export was the best answer to the challenge of job creation. “We have the opportunities, we have the required eco-system. We need textile exports to grow in double digits,” he said.
However, no buyer, either in the domestic or global market, would pay for the sector’s inefficiencies. Hence, the industry should make structural changes. It should focus on value-added garments where the realisation per unit would be higher for blended products, and scale up volumes for basic commodities. “The industry should step up design innovation, have consistency in quality and go in for sustainable textiles,” he said.
N.S. Rajan, CEO of IDFC Foundation, delivered a special address. D.K. Srivatsava, Executive Director of QCFI, and Mohanasundari, chaiperson of the Coimbatore chapter of QCFI also spoke. As many as 150 delegates took part in the programme that had eight technical sessions.
