According to a report by the Times of India on January 30, after the price of cotton yarn fell, some large overseas buyers hope to lower the price of ready-made garments. Against this background, India’s ready-made garment exports have new highlights.
In 2014, the growth rate of India’s garment exports exceeded the growth rate of batch exports of garments from China, although this growth rate was based on a smaller original export base. United Nations merchandise trade statistics show that from January to October 2014, India’s garment exports grew by 14.6% to US$14 billion. During the same period, China’s garment exports grew by 6.5%, amounting to US$145 billion, 10 times that of India’s garment exports.
This news brings relief to Indian garment exporters. Previously, due to the sharp decline in the price of cotton, which accounts for a large proportion of garment manufacturing costs, overseas buyers have asked exporters to reduce costs by 6%-8% in order to obtain higher profits from garment sales.
Strong growth in recent months has given garment exporters the confidence to push export growth to 20%. Virendra Uppur, chairman of the Indian Garment Export Promotion Association, said, “According to this forecast, our garment exports are expected to achieve the ambitious export target of US$37.3 billion in 2018-19. In this fiscal year (April-December 2014) , India’s ready-made garment exports maintain a growth rate of 15%. Such rapid growth is a clear sign that India is becoming one of the preferred sourcing and integration destinations for buyers around the world.”