Diversify to polyester textile products, advises Textiles Secretary

At an interactive meeting of members of leading textile industry association and government representatives held in Coimbatore, the Union Budget 2020 was hailed for its proactive measures to boost the textile and clothing industry

The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), the national apex body for the textiles and clothing industry across the nation, organised an interactive meeting with Ravi Capoor, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, with the office-bearers of 48 textile associations in South India representing the entire textile value chain. The office-bearers and representatives of other national apex bodies such as AEPC, TEXPROCIL, PDEXCIL, SRTEPC and AMFII also participated in the meeting. The Indian textiles and clothing industry has been facing severe challenges in the aftermath of demonetization, GST implementation, economic slowdown across the globe, US-China trade war and recently the corona virus in China.

Though there is a steady growth in the domestic market, exports have stagnated; rather, there has been 4% negative growth during the last four years. China has started cutting down its production, outsourcing and creating huge space in the international market. This opportunity has been fully exploited by smaller countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, etc., and has pushed back India into the 5th position in the global textile trade from the 2nd position that it had been retaining for several years. The global textiles market of cotton and manmade fibre is in the ratio of 30:70 while it is reverse in India.