Cotton textile exports up

The Indian cotton textile industry could re-emerge as one of India's sunshine sectors with the countdown under way for end of the quota regime and integration of the Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA) into the World Trade Organisation. The industry was a competitive exporter of cotton made-ups.

According to data from the Cotton Textile Export Promotion Council (Texprocil), the export of made-ups including bed linen, hand towels and terry towels to the US rose 46 per cent in 2003.

In the terry towels segment, exports to US till May 2004 accounted for $81.59 million out of $396.7 million ahead of Brazil, Turkey, Pakistan and China.

Bed linen exports were $47.42 million from $215.54 million.

In 2003, terry towel exports were at $135.12 million from a total of $721 million. India topped the list in bed linen clocking business worth $93.36 million of a total $511.92 million.

The executive director of Texprocil, Siddhartha Rajagopal, attributed this to the increasing trend of Indian manufacturers moving into value-added production.

"Many companies including the well-established ones are shifting the paradigm to manufacturing made-ups from the production of just yarn and fabrics," he said.

He said garments would be removed from the small scale Industries reservation policy and this would open up opportunities. Uniform tax rebates and an attractive environment for investments would boost trade. he added.

Exports from India stood at $3.2 billion and was expected to go up by at least 15 per cent to roughly $4 billion by the end of this year.