India steadily reduces dependence on Chinese raw silk

29 Mar '13

1 min read

India has been steadily reducing dependence on imports of Chinese raw silk.

India imported about 10,000 tons of raw silk from China about five years ago, now imports have plunged to just 5,700 tons. The Central Silk Board (CSB) in India says that they hope to reduce silk imports from China to nil by 2022.

The Indian State in its recently announced budget hiked raw silk import tariffs from 5 to 15%, purportedly to protect domestic silkworm and silk reeling industry.

In the Indian fiscal year 2011-2012, Indian silk textiles achieved exports of 252.3 billion rupees. Exports declined sharply in the first nine months of this fiscal, mainly due to the impact of market downturn in the United States and West Africa.

The Central Silk Board said that Indian raw silk production reached 23,060 tons (18,395 tons of silk and 4,835 tons of non-silkworms raw silk) in 2011-2012.

Raw silk production in India will reach at least 24,000 tons in this fiscal year. During the 12th Five-Year Plan, raw silk production will reach 32,000 tons, including 5,000 tons of high-grade raw silk, 6000 tons of 2A/3A level raw silk, adaptable to power loom.

Non-silkworm raw silk output is expected to reach 9,000 tons.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - China

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