India’s silk imports declined by 3.33 per cent in value terms to $203 million during the first half of 2008-09 fiscal, even as Chinese silk continued to dominate the trade deals, Central Silk Board said.
Silk imports from other countries such as Brazil and Uzbekistan, which were normally less than 30 tonnes, saw a further dip, while purchases from China remained the highest during the review period, according to the provisional data maintained by Central Silk Board (CSB).
India has been sourcing both raw silk, silk yarn and fabric from the global market from the first Five-Year Plan period in 1954.
The CSB said silk yarn and fabrics imports were slightly down in comparison with raw silk. In value terms, fabric imports stood at $98.60 million in April-September 2008-09 against $111.63 million in a year-ago period, it said.
India bought 4,346 tonnes of raw silk at $105.23 million during the first six months of the current fiscal compared with 4,267 tonnes at $98.88 million in the same period of the previous year, it said.
According to CSB, India shopped two tonnes of raw silk from Brazil, eight tonnes from Hong Kong and three tonnes from other countries. On the contrary, raw silk imports from China stood at 4,333 tonnes during the review period.
Interestingly, silk import from China has been rising in the last few years, with over 38 per cent jump seen in 2007-08 fiscal at 12,535 tonnes from the previous year.
Meanwhile, silk production in the country is estimated to be 21,550 tonnes in 2008-09 compared with 18,320 tonnes in a year-ago period.