Views expressed in the article are the personal opinion of the author.

India started very late in Denim despite the fact that the oldest industry in India is the textile industry, we are rich in cotton and denim is basically a cotton based fabric. Denim trend in India started during the 80s. Due to lesser demand in the domestic market, India was exporting almost two thirds of its denim production when we were producing 300 million meters per annum.

With the passage of time the domestic demand started growing. Simultaneous to the increase in capacity, domestic demand also increased.


When the capacity of denim production was 600 million meters, India was still exporting 200 million meters of denim fabric. The perception that denim fabric exports from India have not grown over a period of time is true. The fact remains that the Indian denim industry or the Denim manufacturers have not been so interested in exports. The reason behind this reluctance is not very complex.Most of the Indian manufacturers have been able to make profits by selling in the domestic market, and hence do not feel the need to compete in the international market.


In India demand for Denim has been growing at a phenomenal pace in the recent years. Around 5 years ago, the annual production capacity was around 600million meters, and today it is approximately around 1000 million meters. In the past two years, Indian denim industry has seen an increase in capacity of about 200-250 million meters. New players have come in, and existing player shave expanded their operations. By 2015, the production capacity is expected by industry analysts to grow and reach around 1200 million meters.

An interesting fact is that during the past 12 to 18 months, there has been a notable decline in the production of denim fabrics in US and China, and hence supplies from these countries have been declining. As a result, approximately 150-200million meters of exports are expected to be added to the Indian Denim industry.

There are jeans manufacturers in Bangladesh who were sourcing their fabrics from China. With China is unable to meet their requirements, these manufacturers are looking towards India as the next preferred sourcing option. Similarly for companies which were sourcing denim from the US, with the cut down in Denim production in US, some of their orders are expected to come to India. These extra export orders will certainly prove to be a boon for the capacity expansion which has been going on.

When this expansion started in 2009-2010 it was anticipated that India will reach a situation of oversupply of denim fabrics. But just as the Indian denim industry was approaching a temporary saturation point after which the oversupply situation would have occurred, this interesting scenario has developed which is likely to result in 150-200 million meters of extra orders for exports. This extra outflow of denim is expected to stabilize the production and the expansion of the Indian denim industry. Had there been a situation of oversupply, the expansion would have slowed down. But in the current scenario, the expansion will be driven further by the positive environment.

Now, in the current situation there will be no oversupply, denim manufacturers will continue to make profits, and as result more new players are likely to enter the segment, while the existing manufactures will continue to expand their operations. This means that the 1200 million meters mark, as earlier anticipated for 2015, could actually be crossed over, and the denim production in India could touch the 1500 million meters per annum mark in the subsequent two to three years.

About the Author:

The author is the founder of Denim Club India, a unified platform for all denim professionals in India.