China Plus One sees India’s textile sector stitching a revival

Export of readymade garments zooms 67% from April to August

Despite container shortage and a shipping crisis capsizing the sector, India’s textile industry has managed to weave a revival story. It is in a sweet spot, largely because of the China Plus One policy of European and US apparel brands, and the ban on Chinese cotton by the US.

Based on the latest available data, the export of ready-made garments (RMG) of all textiles increased 67 per cent during the first five months of the current fiscal year, showing signs of recovery.

From April-august this fiscal year, revenue from RMG exports was seen at $6.02 billion, up from $3.6 billion during the same period in 202021. This is still 11 per cent lower than $6.8 billion during the April-august period of 201920. This comes on the back of reports of a 36-per cent yearon-year rise in clothing exports during the first half of this year and textile and apparel exports to the US — India’s single-largest market — too seeing a spike of 55 per cent during the first seven months of 2021, compared to the same time the previous fiscal year.

"There is a huge sentiment in favour of India in the past few months globally. We are seeing a major rise in exports to the US as they are trying to shift to India, despite a shipping and container crisis," said A Sakthivel, chairman of Apparel Export Promotion Council. Based on industry estimates, there is a huge shift of garment exports from China and Vietnam to India.

Early this month, Textile Minister Piyush Goyal had indicated that the Cabinet may soon clear a ~10,683-crore production-linked incentive scheme for technical textiles and man-made fibre products that will boost domestic manufacturing and exports.