• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

G. Srinivasan

NEW DELHI, Dec. 26

TEXTILE exports during the first half of the current fiscal (April-September) grew by 8.48 per cent fetching $6,007.04 million, against $5,537.55 million in the corresponding period of the last fiscal.

Official sources told Business Line that the readymade garment (RMG) segment, which accounts for a sizeable share in aggregate textile exports, did well by notching up a growth of 11.05 per cent during the period under review after a tepid show last fiscal. Particularly in the US market, the quotas allotted had been exhausted ahead of the period, the sources said. This warranted intervention by the authorities to plead for a little leeway to Indian exporters who had already shipped their apparel items with the US Commerce Department in early November 2002.

RMG exports amounted to $2,568.01 million during April-September 2002, as compared to $2312.39 million in the comparable months of 2001. Cotton textile exports, however, grew by a modest 1.85 per cent at $1,661.41 million ($1,631.28 million).

Both manmade textiles and silk acquitted themselves well by registering double-digit growth of 12.27 per cent and 11.73 per cent respectively in the first half of the current fiscal. Thus, manmade textiles exports fetched $668.69 million ($558.63 million), while that of silk exports amounted to $237.72 million ($211.73 million).

Handicrafts exports registered a robust growth of 11.73 per cent at $612.77 million ($548.41 million), while coir and coir manufactures export grew by a moderate 5.41 per cent at $38.63 million ($36.65 million).

Surprisingly, the poor show notwithstanding domestically, jute goods export logged a spectacular 26 per cent growth at $80.33 million ($63.79). Officials said that the upturn in jute exports was due to several measures taken by the Government, which include assistance under the External Market Assistance (EMA) scheme and the Duty Entitlement Passbook (DEPB) scheme being implemented in the jute sector to boost its exports.

The sources said that though this year's overall textile export target was pegged at $15.5 billion, the prospects of achieving target did not appear very high, considering the various policy packages put in place from time to time by the authorities and also the gradual increase in market access to Indian textile goods in the run-up to the dismantling of quota when the textile sector would be fully integrated into WTO by January 1, 2005. They said that as it is 40 per cent of India's textile products were being exported to non-quota markets and they were doing relatively better in terms of volume and value.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail
Comment on this article to BLFeedback@thehindu.co.in

Stories in this Section
G-secs on stock retail mode

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line